Central Conference of American Rabbis Parley Asks Inclusion of Jerusalem in Israel

The inclusion of Jerusalem within the boundaries of Israel was asked by the Central Conference of American Rabbis in a resolution adopted this week-end following the report of its Commission on Justice and Peace to its 60th anniversary convention.

The Reform rabbis urged that “Jerusalem should be incorporated with the boundaries of Israel where it belongs by virtue of history and population.” They rejected the suggestion of some that Jerusalem” be internationalized and expressed confidence that under an Israeli aaminietratio5 the “Holy Places will enjoy peace and security.”

The conference also went on record in opposition to “Federal or state aid to educational institutions maintained by religious groups, Jewish or Christian.” The action was taken following the report of its Committee on Church and state, headed by Dr. Joseph L. Fink of Buffalo. Dr. Fink, said that the problem of separation of church end state “is growing in vehemence as well as in interest. There are signs that the people of America are becoming increasingly aware of the far-reaching implications of the issue.” The report expressed “absolute devotion to the principle of religious freedom in America arid an unbreachable wall of separation between church and state.”

In the annual conference lecture, Rabbi Abram M. Granison of New York, assistant to the president of the Jewish Institute of Religion, attacked both the National Conference of Christians and Jews and the Council of Judaism, declaring that Jewish support of both of them is an evidence of Jewish group inferiority complex. Rabbi Granison said that Jewish dignity should demand “something more from the good will movement than the make Relieve brotherhood, at which Jews rub elbows with Christians at round-tables under” the auspices of the national conference of several Christians and a few Jews–Just to get some sweet nothings in the form of pious and innocuous platitudes.”

In the annual conference sermon, delivered by Dr. Bernhard J. Bamberger of New York, it was pointed out that Judaism is more than “a valuable phase of Jewish national culture, that it has a prophetic message of the universal good to all mankind.”