A world leader of Reform Judaism predicted tonight that the movement would help to assure that future generations of Israeli Jews would not reject Judaism as a faith as he said was the case for a large number at the present time.
Dr. Solomon Freehof of Pittsburgh, president of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, told the opening session of the twelfth international conference here that “the need of spiritual life will become increasingly evident to the growing generation” of Israeli Jews “to whom nationalism itself is no longer an original idea. ” He said there “will be a famine in Israel, as the prophet said, ‘not for bread but for the word of the living God.'”
He said the World Union had made “tremendous advances ” in both Israel and other parts of the world and he forecast a “bright outlook” for Progressive Judaism in Israel based on recent developments there. He based his forecast also on what he called the “tremendous growth” of liberal Judaism all over the world which he said came from those families “who reject the Orthodox Judaism of their parents.”
“Our chief work must be among those who consider themselves Jewishly religious but who are observing less and less of legally authenticated Jewish practice, ” he told the delegates from 23 countries attending the seven-day conference.
Rabbi Freehof said other reasons for his optimism about the prospects of Reform Judaism in Israel were a plan for the acquisition of a building soon as a permanent house of workship for a Jerusalem synagogue and for a campaign to raise $75,000 for a Leo Baeck secondary school in Haifa and the “trend” toward “greater acceptance” in Israel of liberal religious practices.
The delegates were given a reception by the Lord Mayor and the Corporation of the City of London.
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.
