THE FUTURE OF THE «TASK FORCE REPORT THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE TASK FORCE ON THE FUTURE OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN AMERICA MEMBERS LOUIS STERN, Chairman - Former President of the RABBI MARTIN S. ROZENBERG - The Com• Jewish Welfare Board and the Council of Jewish munity Synagogue, Sands Point, New York Federations and Welfare Funds MARSHALL SKLARE - Professor of American DAVID SI DORSKY, Consultant - Professor of Jewish Studies, Brandeis University Philosophy, Columbia University JOHN SLAWSON - Executive Vice President *RABBI JACOB B. AGUS - Congregation Beth El, Emeritus, American Jewish Committee Baltimore JAMES SLEEPER - Cambridge, Massachusetts ROBERT ALTER - Professor of Comparative Litera• SANFORD SOLENDER - Executive Vice President, ture, University of California at Berkeley Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York SHRAGA ARIAN - Superintendent, Board of Jewish City Education, Chicago HARRY STARR - President, Lucius N. Littauer WILLIAM AVRUNIN - Executive Vice President, Foundation Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit ISAAC TOUBIN - Executive Vice President, Ameri• MAX W. BAY, M.D. - Co-Chairman of the Western can Association for Jewish Education Regional Council of the American Jewish SIDNEY Z. VINCENT - Executive Director, Jewish Committee Community Federation of Cleveland PHILIP BERNSTEIN - Executive Vice President, MAYNARD I. WISHNER - Chairman, Jewish Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds Communal Affairs Commission of the American LUCY S. DAWIDOWICZ-Associate Professor of Jewish Committee Social History, Yeshiva University JOSEF HAYIM YERUSHALMI - Professor of RABBI IRA EISENSTEIN - President of the Recon• Jewish History, Harvard University struction's! Rabbinical College GEORGE M. ZELTZER - Detroit DANIEL J. ELAZAR - Director of the Center for LOUIS I. ZORENSKY - President of the Jewish the Study of Federalism, Temple University Federation of St. Louis LEONARD J. FEIN - Professor of Politics and Social Policy, The Florence Heller Graduate School, Brandeis University American Jewish Committee Staff MIRIAM FREUND-New York City BERTRAM H. GOLD - Executive Vice President SIDNEY GOLDSTEIN - Director of Population SELMA HIRSH - Assistant Director Studies and Training Center, and Professor of Sociology, Brown University MILTON HIMMELFARB - Director, Department of Information and Research ALFRED JOSPE - National Director, B'nai B'rith Hillel Foundations, Washington, D.C. SAMUEL KATZ - Director, Community Services Department MRS. FRANK KAUFMAN - Baltimore GLADYS ROSEN - Program Specialist, Jewish RABBI WOLFE KELMAN — Executive Vice Presi• Communal Affairs Department dent, Rabbinical Assembly of America YEHUDA ROSENMAN - Director, Jewish Com• MORRIS L. LEVINSON - New York City munal Affairs Department DAVID LIEBER - President, the University of STEVEN WINDMUELLER - Program Specialist, Judaism, Los Angeles Jewish Communal Affairs Department SEYMOUR MARTIN LIPSET - Professor of Govern• ment and Social Relations, Harvard University MORRIS FINE - Task Force Coordinator CHARLES S. LIPSON. M.D. - Boston PHYLLIS SHERMAN - Assistant Task Force MORTIMER OSTOW, M.D. - Sandrow Visiting Coordinator Professor of Pastoral Psychiatry, Jewish 0 Theological Seminary RABBI EMANUEL RACKMAN - Fifth Avenue Synagogue, New York City RABBI MAX J. ROUTTENBERG — Temple B'nai * A supplementary statement by Rabbi Agus appears at the Sholom, Rockville Centre, New York end of this Report. 30/ ^3 IN AMERICA A TASK FORCE REPORT THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMITTEE Institute of Human Relations 165 East 56 Street, New York, N.Y. 10022 THE CULTURAL INFRASTRUCTURE . 51 Institutions of Higher Education 52 Publications 54 Other Media 56 Libraries 57 Museums 57 Theatre Arts - 58 THE SYNAGOGUE 59 Diagnosis 60 Problem Areas 61 Communal-Synagogue Action 62 ISRAEL AND THE AMERICAN JEWISH COMMUNITY 65 Joint Program Areas 67 Israeli Models for American Jews . 69 American Models for Israeli Culture 70 Israel as a Personnel Resource 70 Institutional Participation 71 Cultural Exchange 71 Tours 72 Emigration to Israel 72 DECISION-MAKING 74 Volunteer Leadership 75 Professional Staff Roles 76 Responsible Decision-Making 78 The Community and the Congregation 81 American Communal Decision-Making and Israel .... 82 Local, Cosmopolitan, and National Leadership 83 THE ALLOCATION OF RESOURCES 85 6 PREFACE Late in 1969 the American Jewish Committee undertook an assessment of the probable trends and developments in the 1970s that would have a particular impact on the Jewish situation both at home and abroad. Believing that the Seventies would present the Jewish community with new and complex problems which could be dealt with successfully only through a process of long-range planning, the Commit• tee's Board of Governors created a Task Force Policy Committee for the purpose of planning such a program. The Task Force Policy Committee created three inde• pendent task forces, each to operate in an area of vital concern to American and world Jewry falling within the scope of the American Jewish Committee. These were: intergroup relations in America, the future of the American Jewish community, and international affairs. Each of the task forces was composed of 30-35 well-known academicians and experts in their fields as well as laymen of wide knowledge and experience, both within the American Jewish Commit• tee's official family and outside. Each task force retained a special consultant to direct its work, select the areas for study, draft the reports, etc. In addition others were enlisted as required for special background papers and consultations which furnished the basis for the task force conferences. This Report, dealing with the future of the Jewish community in America, seeks to identify and examine the major factors—institutions, tendencies, programs—that deter- v mine the character of Jewish culture and identity in the United States, for the purpose of developing recommenda• tions for action that might help shape the agenda for the American Jewish community in the next decade. It was prepared by David Sidorsky, Consultant to the Task Force, based upon the deliberations of the Task Force at its conferences in New York City on September 26-28, 1970; March 27-29, 1971; and February 5-7, 1972; together with one-day consultations on particular subjects and specially prepared position papers. As Dr. Sidorsky indicates in his Foreword to this Report, he has tried to prepare a consensus document which would formulate the sense of the Task Force on the major questions. The members of the Task Force have reviewed the manuscript and are in general agreement with it, although they may not necessarily agree with all of the Report's observations or recommendations. We are especially grateful to Dr. Sidorsky for the brilliant direction he gave to this entire undertaking, and to the Task Force members and other experts whose papers furnished the basis for Dr. Sidorsky's policy recommendations. We are deeply appreciative, also, of the efforts of Morris Fine and his staff for their competent guidance of this as well as the other Task Forces from their inception. The papers presented at the conferences are scheduled for publication early in 1973, under a grant from the Lucius N. Littauer Foundation. Copies of this Report are available to interested persons or groups from the American Jewish Committee's national office in New York City. MORTON K. BLAUSTEIN Chairman Task Force Policy Committee » August 1972 vi AUTHOR'S FOREWORD This Report is an effort to summarize and to integrate the papers, panel discussions, and conference sessions of the Task Force. It is primarily a consensus document which expresses the convergent views and the agreed sense of the meetings. I have also sought to show the range of opinion within the diverse membership of the Task Force. I have not attempted to trace to their source and to properly attribute the statements and recommendations in this Report. In many cases, these derive from the prepared papers; in others, they stem from the group discussion or even from communications by individual members of the Task Force. Accordingly, the intellectual debts accumulated in such a collective venture are varied and shared, and I shall not here render the account of gratitude. I would be remiss, however, if I did not express my appreciation to those members of the American Jewish Committee staff who assisted in the preparation and editing of this Report: Morris Fine and Phyllis Sherman, and to Maier Deshell of Commentary magazine. DAVID SIDORSKY INTRODUCTION The decade of the 1970s provides challenging opportuni• ties and major risks for the American Jewish community. These are most readily seen as they relate to the physical or communal security of Jews whether in the United States, in Israel, or elsewhere. It is also true, however, that the Jewish community, both in its institutional experience and in the commitments of individuals, is facing opportunities and risks fundamental for its ethical arid spiritual character, its morale, and for the quality of its communal culture. The Task Force on the Future of the Jewish Community in America has sought to analyze some of these opportunities and risks with a view to formulating an agenda for the Jewish community. In understanding that task, it was clear that no single organization or group of organizations can determine the agenda of the Jewish community. There are several reasons why this is so. One inevitable fact of life is that unpredictable events will help to determine the agenda. Consider how the War