Leaders of Reform congregations were warned today that “serious curtailments in the training of rabbis and the provision of synagogue services” await them unless there is a three-fold increase in financial support over the next six months.
Irving S. Schneider, executive vice-chairman of the Combined Campaign for American Reform Judaism, expressed surprise in delivering his semi-annual report that “giving by individuals to philanthropic and religious causes has not kept pace with the obviously strong improvement in the nation’s economy.” He told the temple leaders that in the last six months the Reform Judaism fund-raising campaign has succeeded in bringing together $1,200,000 representing a $45,000 increase over the comparable period in the preceding year but that “needs during the last six months have been twice as great as income.”
The Combined Campaign for American Reform Judaism is the fund-raising agency of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. The two institutions are the national bodies of the Reform branch of Judaism; The campaign is seeking $4,122,769 to finance their 1961-62 programs.
Mr. Schneider in his report stressed that “Reform Jews must come forward in the next six months with another $3,000,000 in cash or accept the consequence of a sharply diminished flow of services from the UAHC and a reduction by the HUC-JIR of its rabbinical training program.” In offering this alternative, Mr. Schneider pointed out that “a curtailment in the training of rabbis would be acutely damaging not only to Reform Judaism but to the American Jewish community as a whole.”
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.
