Reform Rabbis Approve Inclusion of Kol Nidrei in Revised Union Hymnal

voices their imperishable dreams and aspirations for a creative Hebrew life.

The Conference also discussed a new children’s service. The fifteen years of study given to the Hymnal’s revision will, it is believed, reach a conclusion by January, 1931, which has been set as the final date for submission of further criticisms.

OFFERS WET RESOLUTION

A resolution advocating the repeal of the 18th amendment and state control of the liquor traffic was presented to the Conference by Rabbi Clifton Harby Levy. Five other rabbis, Max Reichler of Brooklyn, Louis I. Egelson of Cincinnati, Emil W. Leipziger of New Orleans, Alvin S. Luchs of New Rochelle and Abraham Hirshburg of Chicago, signed it.

While predicting the modification of the dry act, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, a former fervent prohibitionist, urged that the resolution be tabled because it was not in line with the business of the Conference. On his motion it was tabled and will not come before the Conference.

CRITICIZES MENCKEN’S BOOK

During the discussion “The Conception of God in Reference to Religious Education,” Rabbi Bernard Heller attacked H. L. Mencken’s book, “A Treatise on the Gods,” as an atheistic diatribe. Speaking in the same discussion, Rabbi Barnett R. Brickner said that the idea of God must be recast in the light of modern thought.

With “Life’s Abiding Value” as his text, Rabbi Emil Leipziger of New Orleans delivered the Conference sermon in which he described the modern generation as one of doubt, divorce and easy levity regarding sex and in the grip of world cynicism. Rabbi Leipziger said that the moral was in an upheaval while materialism obscures spiritualism.

He saw an abiding value in life for those who mastered it and pointed out that the new freedom brought disillusionment. He deplored the present dictatorship and Communism, saying that Judaism must meet the skepticism of the scientific world with a clear and definite and integrate personal God idea.