Establishment of a federal union of nations after the was as a basis for future peace was urged today in reports submitted to the annual meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis by its committees on International Peace and Social Justice.
The report of the peace committee, whose chairman is Rabbi Joseph Rouch of Louisville, declared: “The committee hopes that when the war is over the United States will use its influence to lay the foundation for a world order resting on the concent of free nations and, if necessary, will not flinch from taking the leadership to bring this about.”
Referring to Clarence K. Strait’s “Union Now,” the report said: “There is a growing conviction that there must be a federation of people which will both guard their individual rights and interests and at the same time promote the general welfare of all. This is very difficult of accomplishment, difficult but not impossible if the will for it be strong and determined.”
The Social Justice Committee, headed by Rabbi Edward L. Israel of Baltimore, reported: “Any program of Federal Union can at best be a preliminary step toward an effective and all-inclusive League of Nations. The folly of isolationism and its fellow-evil of power politics which served to vitiate the Treaty of Versailles League of Nations from its very inception and ultimately to destroy it, must be guarded against and eliminated.”
The peace committee also approved President’s Roosevelt’s defense program and “the liberal position” of the Government towards conscientious objectors.
Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof of Pittsburgh, in a paper on “The Feasibility and Advisability of a Code of Practice for Liberal Judaism,” proposed drawing up of “a clear cut code which will have the effect of law” in the fields of marriage, divorce and conversion, but advised against an attempt at codification of Reform dietary laws of ritual ceremonies.
Dr. Nelson Glueck, archaeology professor at Hebrew Union College, tonight read a paper on “How Archaeology Has Contributed to Our Knowledge of the Bible and the Jew.” He pointed out that “the Bible and biblical archeology complement each other in the establishing of objectively valid historical fact. Biblical archaeology does not attempt to ‘prove’ the Bible. It utilizes its historical materials and illuminates its background, but cannot naturally demonstrate the correctness of its paramount theological content.”
Last night, the conference voted to intensify its activities in goodwill work, acting on the report of President Emil Leipsiger which recommended greater cooperation with the National Conference of Christians and Jews.
At a round-table discussion of “What Prayer Means to Me,” Rabbi Stanley Brav of Vicksburg, Miss., urged that daily prayer be revived in Reform congregations. He said Reform Judaism, is trying to correct abuses in prayer, had destroyed the practice. Rabbi Max Macobby, Mt. Vernon, N.Y., said old Hebrew prayers were better then most modern prayers, but added that prayer, to have value, must not be “a mere mumbo jumbo.”
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.
