Tenth Annual Young Israel Conference Book, November 21-24, 1940

November 21 – 24 1940

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YOUNG ISRAEL CONVENTION JOURNAL
Young Israel bears great significance. Its great opportunities demand equally great responsibilities. Young Israel is an organization that has the possiblity to in-dicate to all the Jewish youth of America that religion is not a thing for old people only and a preparation for the other world, but is for the youth as well as the old to make their lives happier in this world. The Torah is the best and safest regulator of life. Religion is the best means of insuring our happiness and it is as necessary for our moral well-being as the very air we breathe. There are two factions of Jewish youth. One faction deserted our faith and was satisfied with the secular world civilization. The terrible crisis the world is now passing through was the best lesson to this group to show it how futile, how farcial, it is to preach love and goodwill, when at the same time the very elementary prin-ciples of humanity are wantonly disregarded. Now that disillusionment and dis-appointment has overcome them, they seek new movements to satisfy their spirit-ual needs. It is Young Israel's duty to answer this demand and to call those who have been led astray to return to the Torah we received on Mount Sinai, to call them back to the life of Abraham, our ancestor. The other faction is a mighty and heroic Jewish youth who concentrated on the Torah only, for which they were ready to live and to die. This group was the back-bone of our religion and carried its flaming torch to the four corners of the earth. But today this group stands on the brink of destruction, a destruction created for them by the forces of Nazism and Communism. To this group Young Israel owes the duty to carry on its task for them and to carry on the brilliant light of our Torah with the same fervor as they would have if given the opportunity. When Abraham held the knife over his only son the whole hierarchy of angels cried to God to spare the life of Isaac, and the command was, "Lay not thy hand upon the lad, neither do thou the least unto him." And now thousands of Jewish youth lie on the altar in the danger of being sacrificed as an offering not to God but to Nazism and Communism. We pray to God to tell the despotic leaders of these movements, "Lay not bloody hands on these holy lives." As yet our prayers are unanswered. We pray again to our youth of America, "Forsake not their spirits but transplant them into your life." We fervently hope that this entreaty will be fulfilled and then our first request—that our youth be spared—will also be granted.
RABBI PATASHNIK