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Publication Date: December 1974
Publisher: Jewish Communal Service Association of North America
Author(s): Fred Berl
Research Area: Social conditions
Keywords: Jewish Organizations; Jewish Continuity; Assimilation
Type: Report
Coverage: United States
Abstract:
The author contends that the field of Jewish social work should seek a balance between fostering clients' free personal choices, as called for by ethics of professional social work, and fostering Jewish commitment. Freedom and commitment, argues the author, can be in competition but are also mutually dependent; freedom without commitment is not true freedom, nor is commitment really commitment unless it is freely chosen. Currently, the author laments, the balance is far too lopsided in favor of freedom, to the exclusion of commitment.