Divisiveness Between Israel and U.S. Jews Seen at Conservative Parley

“High walls of divisiveness” have arisen between the Jewish communities of Israel and of the United States because of the lack of a dialogue between them on the cultural, spiritual and intellectual levels, Prof. Moshe Davis, head of the Institute of Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, declared here tonight.

Rabbi Davis, who is also research professor in American Jewish history at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he was ordained, addressed the more than 1,600 delegates attending the five-day biennial convention of the United Synagogue of America, the congregational arm of the Conservative movement.

“If we really want to share a creative future,” Prof. Davis declared, “we must find the way to enlist the inventive minds among American and Israeli Jewry in a cooperative thought force which will strive, in active cooperation, to give the Jewish people a new version of the ancient dream of Zion.”

The divisiveness is happening despite a “new physical unity” among the Jews of the world because of the air and space age, he said. “Today, in terms of distance, the State of Israel, so to speak, is a suburb of the Diaspora; in terms of Judaism, the entire Diaspora is a suburb of Jerusalem. We must explore the meaning of this unprecedented situation, “he told the convention.

He declared that what Israel requires of American Jewry is not only continued material help “but our spiritual strength as well — the assurance of our ability to give Torah to Israel as well as to receive spiritual guidance from it.” What is required of every Jew, he said, is personal identification with Israel, “whether it be a year of study or regular visits.”

The convention luncheon today was in tribute to the Jewish Theological Seminary on its 80th anniversary. Rabbi Bernard Mandelbaum, provost of the Seminary and professor of homiletics, was the speaker.