Rabbi Abram Simon, president of the Synagogue Council of America, appeared before House Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday, during the Committee’s hearing on the Porter resolution for the calling of an international conference on calendar reform.
In opposition to the propsed change in the calendar, Dr. Simon reiterated the objections which have already been made against the Eastman calendar providing a year of 13 28-day months, which would result in a “wandering Sabbath.
Representatives of a number of business firms who have already adopted the thirteen-month calendar as a basis for their accounting systems, testified at the hearing. All of them praised the 13-month calendar from a business standpoint. Congressman Bloom, member of the Committee who is leading the opposition to the change, cross-examined them on the effect of the proposed change, from a religious point of view. Most of the witnesses refused to reply to this question, as they were testifying from a business angle only. Others said that, as religious Christians, the sequence of Sundays made no difference to them as long as the same number of days of rest remained. It was stated during the testimony that about 100 firms are using the Eastma calendar.
The Council of Young Israel and Young Israel Synagogue Organizations, numbering thirty constituent branches. went on record at its last meeting held on January 13, 1929, at the Central Jewish Institute, as unqualifiedly opposed to any changes in the calendar which will interfere with the stability of the Sabbath. A resolution to this effect was adopted and a copy sent to Congressman Bloom.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
