Rabbi Gilbert Klaperman, the newly elected president of the Synagogue Council of America (SCA), promised that as leader of the organization he will strive to bridge the gaps and iron out the differences between the three major branches of Judaism.
“We are going to deepen the cooperation and understanding between Conservative, Orthodox and Reform Judaism,” Klaperman said in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency shortly after his election to the influential post last Monday. He succeeded Rabbi Herbert Baumgard of Miami.
The SCA, which comprises the rabbinic and congregational branches of Conservative, Orthodox and Reform Judaism, “Brings together on a daily basis the leadership of the three branches in Judaism,” Klaperman pointed out. “Despite many differences among these constituent agencies, they continue to seek a community of interest and to focus on a wide range of moral and social problems which our society faces,” he said.
“The SCA,” he added, “as a coordinating body, has been able to achieve a unique level of cooperation among these religious bodies. The SCA is the only national representative Jewish religious body that can speak today with one voice to the Christian world, to governmental agencies and the United Nations.”
STRENGTHENING THE SYNAGOGUES
Asked about the priorities and major challenges facing the SCA in the coming years, Klaperman said he sees a major task in making the synagogue once again “the central institution of the Jewish community.”
Klaperman asserted that in too many instances, the synagogue “has been pushed to the periphery of the decision-making process in the larger Jewish community.”
Klaperman, who has served Congregation Beth Shalom of Lawrence, New York, since 1950, said that the SCA “is committed to strengthening the synagogue so that it be “a strong partner with Federations, Jewish community relations councils and Jewish secular bodies — in addressing the challenges facing us as Jews and as citizens of the wider world.”
The SCA acts as the representative Jewish religious voice to national and international Christian organizations, deals with Jewish concerns relating to social and humanitarian problems, and represents the Jewish religious community to the White House, State Department, Congress and the United Nations, Klaperman explained.
On humanitarian and social issues, he said the SCA will intensify its efforts to address the needs of the Jewish terminally ill and their families. He pointed out that the SCA’s first national conference on hospices for the Jewish community and its nationwide program of education, guidelines for synagogues, hospice newsletters which collect and disseminate information about developing Jewish hospice programs, “have stimulated synagogues.”
“The critical challenge,” the Rabbi said, “is to develop sufficient numbers of trained Jewish volunteer care givers to work with the Jewish terminally ill who are currently embraced by hospice programs predominantly under Christian or secular auspices.”
Klaperman disclosed that the SCA will undertake a national Jewish registration drive, because “the findings of the SCA’s recent Jewish voter registration studies in Southern Florida indicated dramatically the need to educate and register Jews to vote.”
Another goal of the SCA, Klaperman said, is “to intensify working relationships and achieve new accords with major Christian religious bodies in the U.S. and elsewhere.”
The SCA represents 2,500 Conservative, Orthodox and Reform synagogues in America. It has 3,500 rabbis and about four million members.
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.
