The installation today of Dr. Abraham J. Feldman as president of the Synagogue Council of America was marked by a message of congratulations from President Eisenhower conveyed by Vice-President Richard Nixon. The message expressed President Eisenhower’s “best wishes” for the Council’s efforts “to strengthen in the American community a devotion to the ancient religious concepts of peace and justice.”
The installation ceremony was also marked by the presentation by Dr. Feldman of the First Annual Citation of the Synagogue Council to Governor Abraham A. Ribicoff of Connecticut. The award cited Gov. Ribicoff “as that American Jew who in 1955 gave a superb demonstration of the abiding meaningfulness and dynamic validity of the teachings of Judaism and the synagogue through translating his love of God and his devotion to the precepts of our faith in serving the people of his state and nation with all his heart, and soul, and might.”
In the major address of the evening, Dr. Feldman announced that the Synagogue Council is launching a nationwide “Back to the Synagogue” movement for the purpose of reaching “the considerable numbers of our people who have no affiliation whatsoever with the synagogue or temple,” and in order to stimulate throughout the country a collective and individual resurgence of profounder spiritual awareness and religious living.”
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.
