Page 16 - HaShofar 5709 1948
P. 16
ORTHODOXY AND SOCIOLO.GICAL _PLANNING
By RABBI HERMAN L. DAVIS
Rabbi Davis is spiritual leader of Lakeview Anshe
Sholom Congregat_iol).. and a member of the Chicago
Rabbinical Couricil. ··
The many problems which confront Orthodox sibility that the area to be served by these ·plans
Jewry in America-problems decidedly different in would . be spatially removed from the aret;1 occu-
kind and degree from those facing Jewries of cen- pied by tµe succeeding generations. Whatever the
turies gone by-these many problems have been c;auses may be, the movement of populations witnin
greatly influenced by the various phenomena of the American metropolitan area with its atteri{:larit
American life. Thus functions like education and disruptions of institutional services, has forced;. the
instituti9n$ _like the synagogue can be fully under- rieed . for a re-orientation in the thinking of· the.
stood only when considered in the light of the con- leader!? of Orthodox Jewish communities in Amer:
ditions of American: living.
1ca.
· It is, therefore, not at all surprising to find that
tq,e numbers of Jews who live ·in the urban areas . The effe~ts which this mobility had upon Chi-
of our country find their problems condition,ed by c:igq Orthodoxy and its institutions are readily
the phenomena which are peculiar to the urban seen; Mobility explains the once-proud synag,ogues
areas of America. One .of these phenomena is the whose empty shells give mute testimony to the fact
high degree of physical mobility of the population. thatdewish life in· Chicago has passed on and
As a result, we find in the city of. Chicago a con- left them iri its wake. Mobility explains the vari,
stant shifting of various religious and linguistic
groups, making for relative instability of residen- ous ·concentrations. of Jewish religious structures
tial areas. ,vhich ·are now devoted to non-Jewish functions.
The Jewish people of Chicago have participated The movement of the Jewish populations means
in the centrifugal movement of po·p-ulation groups also that each generation finds it necessary to e_rect
from the business section of the city towards the
perimeter. Almost all of the Jewish adults in Chi- its own institutions in comparatively. new _sub-
cago who have resided in. this city for any reason- communities in the community of Chicago. When·
able length of time, have experienced one or more it is· realized that this movement is not a sudden
major residential changes. In a fairly orderly and movement of the ~hole group, but rath_er a gradual
.movem~nt based, at least_ partially, on desires· to
regular course the Jewish population of Chicago maintain status,. to emulate members of higher in-
has traveled a path from the Old East Side, to
Ashland Avenue, thence to the West Side (Douglas come bracket~, or to improve social positicin..::...then
Boulevard);- From here, there has been a tendency it must be realized that old methods of ·setting _up
to fan out toward the outer edges of the city instit!}tions by having them created by the demand
(Rogers Park, Albany Park, Austin, Hyde Park;
South Shore) . of the mass of the group must give way to planned
construction. And - this is _the crux - the plans
The present halt in movement of Chicago's pop- must consider not the present deilland but rather
ul:ition groups is not to be considered a perma-
nent one. Caused by postwar housing conditions, athe anticipated one. In short, the conditions of
it is no more than a temporary interruption, which
we may best utilize by preparing for the inevitable m'etropolitan living Ill America demand new con-
resumption of the population movement.
ception of the problem~one which recogni~es t~a~
..For the Orthodox Jewish people in Chi'cago, this
factor of mobility has created new probltmis and the physical living conditions of -urban Jews are
has seriously aggravated existing ones. Perhaps Or-
thodox Jews in Chicago have failed to see their not static but rather dyJ:i.1:1m1c. .·
problems in their proper settings. In the Old
World, many Jewish communities were relatively The situation demands, then, that we think and
permanent physical units, and the passing of the plan not in terms of simple provincial living, but
generations saw little or no change in the physical
area occupied by the Jewish community. Conse- rather in terms of complex metropolitan life. In
quently, techniques and processes were developed
for the service of a relatively stable and immobile both instances, the Jewish population shoµld be
population. Mental attitudes were conditioned to seen as .a whole, but in the. former, it i:, _a single
problems, the solutions of which might be expected
to serve more than one generation. Whatever plans aunit in. w.hich the probJem is one of defections
were drawn were not required to include the pos-
from, or additions . to a Jewish population in
more or less specific residential area, whereas in
the latter it is a problem of a whole Jewish group
shifting its locale from one residential area to
another within a single metropolitan area.
The facts are clear. It remains t~ be seen whether
or not our mental outlook can now_ be changed to
cope with the entrance of this new factor in Amer-
ican Jewish life. Only a change in attitude result-
ing from a recognition of the facts can enable ·or,
thodox Jewry of Chicago to meet the challenge of
its problems with reasonable possibilities of success.
Present conditions in Chicago require, .first of
14 THE SHOFARl
