Valery and Galina Panov, Zalman Schacter,
Yaakov Kirschen, and Yehuda Amichai. Add up
our many courses, coffee hours, lectures and
other programs and you will see that the Jewish
presence on campus has been considerably
heightened and Jewish intellectual and cultural
life has been represented constantly and richly.
Since we are in a part of the country without
sizeable concentrations of Jews, and hence without many of the resources ofjewish life that the
large cities customarily afford, members of the
Jewish Studies faculty have taken it upon themselves to serve communities outside of
Bloomington in a variety of ways. Our shingle is
out and people take notice — people from Gary,
Hammond, South Bend, Fort Wayne, Muncie,
Indianapolis, etc. The result is that we often
have more calls than we can easily handle. Jewish
Studies faculty members lecture in synagogues,
i churches, and community centers around the
I state; participate in conferences on the Middle
East, the Holocaust, and the future of American
Jewry; speak at youth groups and public schools;
assist in interfaith planning activities; and more.
We also run a television program series that
reaches eight different communities in Indiana
and brings interesting and lively lectures to
adults in those communities. (It was the recipient
last year of both the William J. Shroder and the
Haber Award.) This coming year, in order to
overcome the geographic difficulties, we will be
bringing some of these communities to us by
hosting small conferences and weekend retreats
on the Bloomington campus.
Courses Affirm Value ofjewish Experience
In sum, we have begun to make a difference. For
the hundreds of students on campus who take
our courses, the Jewish experience has been given
a kind of legitimacy it may not have had before.
One needn't any longer study the Jews "on the
side" or "on the run," as some special interest
over and above one's general university studies.
Jewish studies can be an integral part of one's
studies, as much a part as French or Chemistry or
Mathematics. For the Jewish student, the
normalization ofjewish Studies within the college
curriculum means that his or her past now counts.
Not only do students perceive that they get academic "credit" for studying the Jews but, perhaps for the first time, they see that the Jews
themselves are accredited as being a people of
interest and accomplishment, every bit as worthy
of serious and extended study as other peoples. It
would be a mistake to minimize the importance
21
of this kind of legitimacy for the Jewish student.
As for the non-Jewish student, the opportunity
to reflect seriously on Jewish history, learn Jewish
languages, discover the distinctivenesss and problems ofjewish religion means, at the very least,
to be challenged by an order of experience significantly different from that usually described in
the home, church, and public school. The Jews
fascinate. Jewish Studies encourages such fascination and helps to guide it to knowledge, the end
of which, one hopes, is better informed and more
sensitive appreciation of otherness.
Indiana may still speak with a Hoosier accent
but, as a result of the Jewish Studies Program at
Indiana University, Bloomington has become a
less lonely and less alien place for growing numbers of students, faculty members, and many
others. Some of these others, it is rumored, have
recently been heard speaking with a hint ofjewish
inflection in their voice.
Nestle responds
We have received a letter from The Nestle
Company in response to Mayer I. Gruber's article.
"Is buying from nestle a sin for jews?" (Sh'ma
9/178). The company denies the charges of misrepresentation and misuse of infant formula
products in the Third World. In October, Nesde
participated in a World Health Organization/
UNICEF meeting on Infant and Young Child
Feeding, and joined the other parties present in
agreeing to recommendations to encourage
breastfeeding and control infant formula
marketing practices.
Readers can receive the full text of The Nesde
Company's reply by sending us a self-addressed,
stamped envelope.
The jewish family: so what else is new?
Bernard Farber
Just how badly is the Jewish family faring? Compared with the past, terribly: intermarriage rates
are high, and increasingly the rates for women
are approaching those for men; divorces are becoming more and more prevalent; birthrates are
below replacement levels; and the few children
there are, tend to be spoiled, neurotic, and ignorant about Judaism. But these trends are not
restricted to Jews. They reflect changes in family
life which are occurring in all of American society.
As part of a larger study of families in Phoenix,
Arizona, I had a supplementary sample ofJews —
not many, about 60 young families. (My respondents were all under 46 and either were
married or had been married.) Despite the small
sample, my results were quite consistent with
those of other researchers: Educational level was
high, the birthrate ofjewish families was the
lowest of all religious groups, and yes, views of
Jewish respondents on abortion and premarital
cohabitation were the most liberal.
Jews Still Show Strong Family Orientation
But even in a Southwestern outpost like Phoenix,
young Jewish families differ in significant ways
from those of non-Jews with similar occupational
and educational backgrounds. More Jewish
couples are in their first marriages — and so are
their parents. When intermarriages occur, almost universally (unlike Catholic-Protestant
mixtures) all the children are raised in the same
religion — more often than not Jewish. Beyond
that, contact with the mishpocheh (family) is more
frequent than in Protestant and Catholic families
— not only with parents, but also with brothers
and sisters — and in-laws as well. And this occurs
whether these relatives live in the same community or in distant places. Moreover, Jewish
couples are more likely than others to believe
that one has a greater duty to a relative than to a
non-relative. Thus, despite the weakening of
family ties in America, "familiam" is still more
firmly imbedded in the current Jewish family
than it is among others.
The persistence of a "familistic" orientation
among Jews has implications for understanding
the degree to which "the Jewish family" is transportable to different social contexts. In my study
I have been able to identify separate models of
family ties among Jews, Catholics, and Protestants.
For Jews, incorporation into the American middle
class has not meant the Protestantization of outlook on family ties — as it seems to have done
among upwardly bound Catholics. The Jewish
kinship model is fairly strong even among
younger Reform Jews with American-born
parents. Perhaps where such Protestantization
has occurred, Jewish identity has also waned. In
the past, Jewish women who rebelled against the
traditional roles accorded to women in Orthodox
homes frequently regarded the connection between their roles and Judaic codes as fixed, and
they would disavow any identity as Jews. It is
significant that women today are seeking new
solutions to the problem of maintaining "a
Jewish home" while simultaneously redefining
22
their position in secular society.
Jewish Life Makes Many Demands of Family
Compared with the Pre-Holocaust past, the social environment of the Jewish family places
more competing demands upon its members.
The Jewish neighborhood with its distinctive
communal institutions — the kosher butchershop, the deli, the shochet (butcher), the shut, and
the close by mishpocheh — have given way to more
indirect and associational means of cohesion —
the state of Israel, telephone and mail visiting
with relatives, the temple, the complex ofjewish
organizations. In this kind of environment,
having a Jewish family life requires hard decisions
and an extra effort.
Optimism: A Life Sign of the Jews
It is true that the mishpocheh is dwindling in size.
Whereas each Catholic in our sample could claim
7.2 nieces and nephews, and each Protestant
slightly over 6, the Jews could point to an average
of only 2.3 children from their siblings. Yet
family size does not reveal the whole story — the
Jewish respondents are optimistic over the future.
More than others, they disagree with the statement that "it is unfair to bring children into the
world as it is." They show less general disillusionment with the world than do Christian respondents with similar socio-economic characteristics.
So, while Jewish kinship groups are indeed becoming more and more attenuated, the end
product does not appear to be geno-suicide. Instead, it looks as though Jewish couples are
trimming down the mishpocheh to manageable
proportions in order to balance the high intensity
of familiar commitments with other important
concerns in their lives.
In these days of the ideal of low cost - high profit
social relationships, we tend to forget that the
traditional Jewish family has always extracted
high personal costs. It has always demanded
dedication and sacrifice, just as donning "the
yoke of Jewishness" has ever required firm commitment and self-discipline. It did so in times of
wandering and poverty. Why should affluence
and the post-industrial world make a difference?
The old saw still stands: Es iz shver tsu zein a Yid (it
is hard to be a Jew).
Chanukah gift offer
In case you have forgotten, it is not too late to
send your friends or relatives a gift subscription
to Sh'ma. Until December 31, we are offering a
special gift rate of $7.50 for a full year's subscription of 20 issues. You can also still order autographed copies of Elie Wiesel's The Trial Of God,
for $8.95. If you'd like a thought-provoking gift
i for teenagers, Eugene Borowitz's Understanding
\ Judaism, explaining the basic ideas of Jewish
belief, is $5. Both prices include the handling and
i> mailing charges. Send your check to Sh'ma, Box
567, Port Washington, N.Y. 11050 (Please
! specify your requests).
. . . but others say about proselytes...
a response to articles in Sh'ma 9/179
, Converts to be Welcomed But Not Pursued
j It is true that some converts may feel some
"stigma" about their conversion, however pursuing converts is not the means to make them
feel better. Many Jews are threatened by the convert's sincere enthusiasm and in order to feel
superior, they subconsciously categorize converts as second class Jews who are somehow not
"true" Jews. This is simply another area where
the actions ofJews are not in harmony with
Jewish philosophy. We must constantly teach
and remind the Jewish community that a sincere
convert is totally Jewish. We recite a special
blessing daily for geirei hatsedek (the true
1 proselytes). Welcoming converts and pursuing
them are different concepts.
George Lebovitz
Cincinnati, Ohio
We Must Take Our Faith More Seriously
This is someone who never had a "Jewish" background (though having ajewish father). He could
have easily become Catholic or Protestant or an
agnostic. However, he found Judaism and for
him it was a spiritually and socially rewarding
experience.
I see the reason for the controversy over proselytizing and perhaps speak for all those converts to
Judaism, as well as the "reborn Jew."
The question is whether or not born Jews really
feel their religion is worth sharing with other
people. For by their actions, or inactions, they
are telling the world that Judaism is not something valuable and good, offering hope to all who
23
despair the exclusive neo-paganism of Christianity or the cold, impersonal life of humanism.
Have they so little regard for their own religious
beliefs that they cannot offer them to other
people?
For it seems that we have lost, as a people, a
personal relationship with our God. We do not
take our faith seriously . . . to many, Judaism
comes across as nothing more than a series of
ethnic rites and customs based in ethical behavior.
It is this attitude that is causing the young to flee
the synagogue and is making Jewish cultural life
in today's world a crumbling shell. If we are going
to proselytize, we had better first turn and look
at ourselves and see where we have failed. We
had better take God and our religion seriously,
not with rigidity or dogma, but with creativity
and love for God and our fellow man. The convert offers a challenge to us to return to God.
John Newman
Casper, Wyoming
Let Us Open Our Door to the Hungry
I believe that the issue of proselytizing is one
where the validity of content is overshadowed by
the form of its delivery. I would like to see information and Jewish experience made available to
people in a non-threatening manner. I offer the
following two suggestions:
Any synagogue could establish a mailing list of
intermarried couples (just ask your members for
names) and offer a series of discussion groups.
The sessions should deal with gripes, family reactions, inter-cultural marriage problems and those
sorts of issues. Then some sessions should be
devoted to Jewish history, theology, tradition,
and experiencing Jewish practices. Sessions
could also discuss viable lifestyles that incorporate religious practices. At the end of the
series sessions dealing with conversion could be
presented, perhaps as a separate course, but giving
a lot of advance notice, so no one feels that they
have been tricked or pressured into doing this if
they are not ready.
Another suggestion is to hold a once-a-month
program for high school age children who are
only halfJewish or from uninvolved families.
There are youths who will become interested in
exploring Judaism in their search for identity.
Without pressure to become very involved, young
people could assuage much curiosity. Why not
facilitate this?
I believe that we could open the door so that all
who are hungry can come in to partake of what
we offer, but to go out and try to blind others
with orat Torah (the light of Torah) will harm us.
Jeanne Traxler
Brookline, Mass.
Major Motive For Converts Is Marriage
There is an enormous influx of non-Jews into
Judaism. But these nouveax juives have entered the
fold because of matrimony.
I have challenged rabbis to point to bona fide
converts who turned Jewish for motives other
than marital. My challenge has gone unanswered.
I do it again. There may be some, but my guess is
that they are a handful.
The door to Judaism should indeed remain open.
But persuasion a la Schindler ought to be out.
Because it's unproductive. Remember Herod!
Samuel M. Silver
Delray Beach, Fla.
We Need More, Sincere Jews
I suspect that percentage-wise, more Gentiles
than Jews believe in God. Which is to their credit
and to our advantage. Yes, I believe in discreet,
polite proselytism. We did it in the past, when
times were auspicious, and the times are auspicious again. Non-Jews are interested in Judaism,
and we need more Jews and sincere Jews.
Joseph Hirsch
Arcadia, Ca.
HAROLD SCHULWEIS, Rabbi, Valley Beth
Shalom, Los Angeles, HENRY SCHWARZSCHILD,
Director, Project on Capital Punishment, American
Civil Liberties Foundation. STEVEN
SCHWARZSCHILD, Professor of Philosophy,
Washington University, Editor, Judaism, 1960-69.
SEYMOUR SIEGEL, Professor of Theology, Jewish
Theological Seminary. SHARON STRASSFELD, coeditor of the First and Second Jewish Catalog and
Behold A Great Image. ELIE WIESEL, author and
lecturer, whose most recent book is The Trial of God.
ARNOLD JACOB WOLF, Director, Hillel
Foundation, Yale University, Editor, What is Man?
MAKING TAX-DEDUCTIBLE GIFTS at year's end?
Please remember Sh'ma.
ELIEZER BERKOVITS who has written extensively
on Jewish law and theology in the United States, now
resides in Jerusalem.
GERALD SEROTTA works with college students
through the Hillel Foundation at Rutgers University in
New Brunswick, New Jersey.
ALVIN ROSENFIED teaches in the English department and heads the Jewish Studies Program at Indiana.
BERNARD FARBER teaches sociology at Arizona
State and has a particular interest in the family.
STEVE BAUMAN, one oflast year's Fellows, solicited
the campus articles.
OS 01 I
A N MOiONIHSV*
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18 a * a
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We would like to identify the rest of our Contributing Editors, (continuedfrom Sh'ma 9/181)