> Literally none of the prewar Jewish communities of Europe would have been “good enough” for UJM.
ujm> most prewar shtetlech were very strict
As UJM demonstrates, our idea of pre-war Yidden is often limited to Fiffler on the Roof and Artsrcoll… Things were not that simple especially in the last 150 years. A couple of totally random examples, not extreme ones, about middos and education:
– Chofetz Chaim’s daughter asked her father for a brocha to have children tzadikim. Her father complied and gave her a brocha to have many children. She had to correct her Tati and asked for children tzadikim. He replied that in that generation he can’t, he can only give a brocha for having more children and hopefully some of them will be alright… There was no date on this story, but given he was born in 1830s, this discussion would be not later than 1870s. And he says this about his own grandchildren.
– Telshe yeshiva at some point lost all students to revolutionary activities and new students were sent from Slobodka. This is Lita that was more traditional than some other places.
– R Salanter’s son was an engineer, maybe in Germany. He visited his father and showed him a drawing of a naval engine that he was able to improve. R Salanter asked him not to tell him, studied the drawing, and pointed out to the improvement. He would later proudly tell (or show?) this to others. Here is a Rosh Yeshiva’s son an engineer and his father proud of second-guessing him.
Not saying that there were not upright and (separately) insular communities, it is just the variety of Jewish life was more than some imagine.