Jewish Cultural Problems Discussed at Yivo Four-day Conference

Jewish cultural problems in the United States are being discussed at the four-day annual conference of the YIVO, Institute for Jewish Research, which is now taking place in New York.

The conference opened with an address by Emanuel Rackman, Associate Professor of Political Philosophy at the Yeshiva University, evaluating the effects of recent immigration from Eastern and Central Europe on the American Jewish Community. It will also discuss the social patterns of the Jews as an American group.

Addressing the conference last night, L. Leivick, noted Jewish poet, analyzed cultural patterns in the State of Israel. He said that Israel has no definite cultural pattern at present but is in process of forming one. He stressed the cultural conflict between the younger and older generation in Israel in the approach to Jewish history and Jewish spiritual values. This conflict, he said, affects thinking about the Jewish spiritual past and revolves around the basic question: What is a Jew and what does the Jew want to be today.

Dr. Isaac Schwarzbart, leader of the World Jewish Congress, who presided at last night’s session, spoke of the influence of East European Jewry on the cultural development of Jewish life in the United States. He stressed the value of the work of YIVO in preserving the Jewish cultural heritage of communities annihilated by the Nazis, and appealed to American Jewry to give maximum support to YIVO.

Three young Jewish scholars were awarded YIVO prizes for studies on American Jewish life. The first award of $200 was given to Julius Bornstein of Chicago for a study of the radical secular movement among Jews in the United States. Two other prizes of $100 each were awarded to Arthur Nassau of New Haven for his study of Jewish voters in the U.S., and to Norton Mezwinsky of Madison, for his works “The Jewish Moment in Ludwig Lewissohn’s Writings.”