ANNUAL REPORT ON ALEPH ZADIK ALEPH OF B'NAI B'RITH In delivering the annual report of any organization, there are certain inadequacies that are immediately recognized. One of these inadequacies is that a report can be purely statistical and thus one would miss the romance and the adventure in the activity, and the other is that it might be too romantic and thus one would feel that he is listening to a story alone. I have tried to avoid both extremes. It can be safely asserted that since its Bar Mitzvah Convention in Port Jervis in 1937, Aleph Zadik Aleph has really become of age. Aspects of its activities since that time amply demonstrate the correctness of this observation. Not only has there been an added increase in membership and an extension of the A.Z.A. pro- gram, but many Jewis h communal leaders are recognizing the im- plications of that membership and program in their own communities, A.Z.A. has always directed its program SO as to develop the character of its members and to make of them better Americans and better Jews. This general aim has been our sole objective, and we have, therefore. steered our course clear of any controversial phases of American or Jewish life. We feel that our function in the Jewish and general community should be confined to that of building character; that, where other youth groups concentrate on specific ideologies, we give ourselves the simply stated but all important task of moulding Jewish young men for future participation in adult Jewish com- munal life. This thesis was evidenced at a recent Jewish youth symposium in New York, where representatives of various groups presented the philosophy of their movements. Coincidentally enough Irving Levitas, our National Cultural Director, the rep- resentative of A.Z.A., spoke last. This gave him the opportunity of driving the point home that A.Z.A., given its membership a ge limits of 15 to 21 and its program, concerned itself solely with introducing the Jewish young man into the complex texture of contemporary Jewish life. There was no specific platform, no implicit association with an ideology; the taskw as that of playing the role of an extra-curricular school of Jewish affairs in which the students learned the values of Jewish life and its implications for them. One should not get the impression that A.Z.A.'s program is an aimless one. On the contrary, it is directed towards a certain goal--the enhancement of Jewish living and the increase of the extension of the participant in Jewis h affairs. It should be noted that we are not only desirous of creating future Jewish leaders but also future intelligent participants in Jewish com- munal life. You will get creat leadership only when you have