The creation of an academic center in Israel which would serve as a cultural and religious bridge between Israel and American Jews was announced here today by the Rabbinical Council of America at its 23rd annual convention at the Pineview Hotel. The proposed academic center would be constructed at a cost of $500,000. It will be an expansion of the Council’s Yeshivath Hadorom at Rehovott., Israel, which trains students for educational, rabbinical and social service in that country.
The delegates of the Orthodox rabbinical convention approved a campaign for the raising of the money among the Council’s membership of more than 750 rabbis, and also among Orthodox Jewish communities in the country. Details of the project were outlined by Rabbi Charles Weinberg, first vice-president of the Council. He said that graduates of American rabbinical seminaries will be invited to study at the center for a year or more “for special research in the fields of Jewish religious law, Israeli culture and related subjects.”
The delegates voted to hold the Council’s 1961 convention in Jerusalem. The convention re-elected Rabbi Emanuel Rackman as president, and Rabbi Solomon J. Sharfman as honorary president. At another session, Dr. Isidore Twersky, Assistant Professor of History at Harvard University, delivered a paper which was devoted to an analysis of the religious poetry of the middle ages.
Addressing the convention, Dr. Joseph B. Soloveitchik of Boston, a leading Jewish Orthodox theologian and philosopher, said that there is nothing in Jewish religious doctrine which opposes scientific research and discovery, including the conquest of outer space.
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.
