Reform Leader Urges U.S. Jews to Unite Against Pressure on Israel for Imposed Settlement

A leader of Reform Judaism in America called on the American Jewish community tonight to stand united against possible attempts by the United States to pressure Israel into accepting an imposed settlement of its conflict with the Arab states. Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) warned that there are “clear signals from the White House and some members of Congress” that such pressure will be brought to bear.

Addressing the 88th national convention of the CCAR which opened at Grossinger’s Hotel here today, Lelyveld said, “We must make it clear, each of us to our own Senators and Representatives, that the American Jewish community will not placidly accept this kind of betrayal of previous promises.” He referred to recent remarks by President Carter about only “minor adjustments” of Israel’s 1987 borders, a “homeland” for Palestinians and compensation for Palestinian refugees without mentioning compensation for the 800,000 Jewish refugees who fled or were ousted from Arab countries.

“We must call upon the President of the President of the United States to hold fast to his pre-election affirmations,” Lelyveld said. He said “There are subtle signs too, of an effort to mobilize American Jewish opinion for the purpose of bringing Israel ‘into line.'” He stressed that “only the sovereign, democratic State of Israel can determine where its interests lie. We can offer counsel or criticism when it is valid, but never pressure or interference–nor can we be complacent about pressure or interference from others–even from Israel’s supposed friends.”

URGES NEW ZIONIST GROUP

In his 18-page presidential report to the convention, Lelyveld called on the CCAR to endorse a proposed resolution that would establish Reform Judaism’s first mass-membership religious Zionist organization, to be called the Association of Reform Zionists of America, which would be open to any rabbi or layman affiliated with the Reform movement.

He said the establishment of such an organization, to be affiliated with the World Zionist Organization, is “not only an action that has great historic significance, it is also of major importance to the growth and nourishment of our movement in Israel and its institutions.”

Acknowledging that the Orthodox religious establishment in Israel has been strengthened by the results of Israel’s recent elections, Lelyveld said that Reform Judaism would seek to forge closer alliances with the Conservative movement and other non-establishment forms of Jewish religion in Israel. “Our goal in relation to our movement in Israel is not parochial,” he said. “What we seek in Israel is the kind of full religious freedom, for all its citizens, that we enjoy in the United States. That will be achieved only when religion is separated out of the State.”

He said that Reform Judaism is not seeking recognition by the Israeli chief rabbinate. “They cannot grant it, given their conception of what the halacha demands, and we would not need it, any more than we need to be recognized by the Agudas Harabbonim here, if only the intrusion of establishment religion into the State’s laws of personal status were ended. This is where the evil lies–not in any alleged malign attitude in the Orthodox rabbinate,” Lelyveld said.

SAY RESPONSE TO BEGIN ‘UNFAIR’

The Reform rabbinical leader said that he had hoped for a different outcome of the Israeli elections. But he assailed what he called the “patently unfair” response in America, some “from high quarters,” to the election victory of Menachem Begin’s Likud Party. “The voters of Israel had the last word,” he said. He stressed that Israel is “a living, working democracy–one of the few genuine democracies left–and as we have learned here in the United States, genuine democracies do have the power to survive and to regenerate themselves whatever administration may temporarily have achieved power.”

He added that “It may very well prove true. . . that a Likud government may be able to do hard things for peace that a Labor government could not have gotten away with–and that is less a rationalization than the expression of a prayer. In any case, we must wait and see.”