Addresses revealing many aspects of the problems confronting Jews throughout the world were delivered today as the conventions of three prominent national organizations continued here. The groups holding meetings are the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the National Federation of Temple Brotherhoods, and the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods.
At the U.A.H.C. conference today, delegates heard Ludwig Vogelstein, of New York, chairman of the Union’s executive board, propose that the Synagogue Council of America be made the organization to represent the opinion of American Jews, at home or abroad, on all questions affecting Jewish rights.
Addressing 1,500 persons, Mr. Vogelstein referred in his message to Judge Horace Stern’s plan for congregational reorganization which was presented last year in Philadelphia.
“Sooner or later,” said Mr. Vogelstein, “we will have to learn the truth—that our supreme distinction in the Diaspora is our Jewish religion. However, if the Jewish religion is the supreme tie which holds us together, then the synagogue should be our mouthpiece. Orthodoxy, Conservatism and Reform have a common platform—Judaism.”
Mr. Vogelstein pointed out that in order to manifest this unity of American Israel and provide the machinery for joint action the Union, a few years ago, formed what is known as the Synagogue Council of America. It is composed of representatives of the Orthodox, Conservative and Reform lay unions and rabbinical bodies.
“It has been a very small organization,” he declared, “burdened with few tasks, invested with few responsibilities, but it has proved that cooperation is possible, that differences of opinion can be smoothed out, and that we can show an unbroken phalanx to the world.”
BROTHERHOODS MEET
Professor Samuel S. Cohon, of the Hebrew Union College, Cincinnati, today addressed the delegates attending the fifth biennial convention of the National Federation of Temple Brotherhoods. His topic was: “Religion: The Objective of the Brotherhoods.”
Professor Cohon pointed out that the youth of the Brotherhoods is not a matter of years but of spirit and enthusiasm. The Brotherhoods comprise men of all ages, and afford to all the opportunity for democratic participation in the religious work of the congregations, he asserted.
SISTERHOOD FEDERATION
Mrs. Maurice Steinfeld, of St. Louis, delivered her president’s message to the delegates attending the opening of the tenth biennial assembly of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods here today.
“At this convention,” said Mrs. Steinfeld, “we turn the key that unlocks the record of the National Federation of Temple Sisterhoods, for at this time we shall inscribe the twentieth chapter in our volume of years. The past year has been difficult for all of us, but the spirit and activity of our organization have by no means waned during this period.”
On Sunday night the delegates to the three conventions and hundreds of Chicago friends attended the Council religious service in Temple Sholom on Lake Shore Drive.
Rabbi Emil W. Leipziger, of New Orleans, delivered the Council sermon: “A message of religion in a day of difficulty.”
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.
