The Rabbinical Assembly of America, the national association of over 500 American and Canadian rabbis affiliated with Conservative Judaism, today voted to invite the Reform and Orthodox branches of Judaism to join in establishing a national Beth Din – a Jewish court – to deliberate problems of marriage, the family and divorce. The announced intention of the national Beth Din is “to preserve the integrity and advance the welfare of the Jewish family in accordance with Jewish law and tradition.”
The action, adopted on the last day of the Rabbinical Assembly’s 53rd annual convention here, contained the important proviso that if, within the next six months, such a joint project appears outside the realm of possibility, the Rabbinical Assembly and the faculty of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America will take steps leading to the establishment of a national Beth Din.
Avraham Harman, director of the Israel Office of Information, addressing the final dinner session of the convention, reaffirmed that peace in the Middle East and economic development are “the two cardinal elements of Israel’s policy” at the present time. “Aggression,” he said, “forms no part of Israel’s character or purpose, but resistance to aggression is an unshakeable attitude on the part of the nation as a whole. Israel’s entire national policy is concentrated on internal development and getting out of the soil of Israel, within its present boundaries, the wealth latent there to sustain its people,” he stated.
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.
