United Synagogue Convention Pledges Maximum Support to America’s War Effort

Maximum support of America’s war effort was pledged by the convention of the United Synagogue of America in a resolution adapted here at the closing session last night. The resolution expressed determination to contribute to the “limit of our resources, material and spiritual, and our very lives, to the services of our country until a victorious peace is achieved.”

The convention approved the recent stops taken by the government to curb purveyors of racial and religious hatred and condemned all efforts to “divide the nation against itself and stir up racial and religious prejudices within its borders.”

Devoted to various aspects of adjusting the synagogue to the problems faced by Jews in war-time, the convention urged in one of its resolution that the Rabbinical Assembly of America re-examine the details of Jewish religious law “with a view to easing the problems that may arise in the personal and family lives of those called to arms in the defense of their country.” The gathering went on record as disapproving gambling or games of chance as a means of fund-raising, recommended the appointment of a committee to study the feasibility of merging large and small synagogues serving the same area, urged appointment of a committee to develop plans for increasing synagogue attendance and asked greater support of the “Synagogue Center,” the organization’s official publication, and of the Young People’s League.

The nation-wide campaign of the United Jewish Appeal was endorsed by the convention. Louis J. Moss of Brooklyn was re-elected president of the United Synagogue for a sixth term. Among the speakers who addressed the delegates during the four-day meeting was Habbi Leon Lang, president of the Rabbinical Assembly of America; Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the Synagogue Council of America, Frank L. Weil, president of the Jewish Welfare Board, Baron Guy de Rothschild, Rabbi Isaac Landman, editor of the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, and many others. Rabbi Landman, who spoke as a representative of the Synagogue Council of America, pleaded for Jewish unity on the basis of “Judaism as religion.” He was the first Reform rabbi to address the United Synagogue since its founding in 1915.