Commitment and Freedom: A Paradox in Service to the Jewish Family


 

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.