What are you going to do to preserve a tradition that is the peculiar and unique culture that Judaism inculcates? The American Jewish community is not going to survive by lining up against its common enemy.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of actively preserving cultural traditions rather than merely reacting to external challenges.
Arthur Hertzberg highlights the need for the American Jewish community to focus on the proactive preservation of its unique traditions and culture, rather than solely uniting against perceived threats. He suggests that a community's strength lies in its commitment to its heritage and the values it embodies, which are essential for its survival and flourishing.
In practice
During a community meeting discussing cultural initiatives, this quote could be used to inspire action towards preserving traditions.
Languages and cultures are disappearing at an enormously fast rate, and many of them are in Canada. These are extreme examples of removal of freedom of expression - to actually lose a language and the ability to express that culture.
I realized that you cannot think European and want to write or create something African. You have to think African in everything.
For decades, we've worked under the assumption that mass culture follows a steadily declining path toward lowest-common-denominator standards, presumably because the 'masses' want dumb, simple pleasures and big media companies want to give the masses what they want.
Africa is our center of gravity, our cultural and spiritual mother and father, our beating heart, no matter where we live on the face of this earth.
Enshrined in a language is the whole of a community's history and a large part of its cultural identity. The world is a mosaic of visions. To lose even one piece of this mosaic is a loss for all of us.
I love having different cultures around, but when the parent culture kind of dissipates, you're left thinking, 'Well, what's going on?'
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