A first step toward the union of all orthodox Jewry in Greater New York was taken Sunday when delegates representing thirty-two synagogues, with an approximate membership of 10,000 Jews, voted to establish a New York branch of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.
The meeting was attended by seventy-five representatives of congregations in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn. Committees were appointed to consider the terms of the federation to study, define and eliminate the “mushroom” synagogue, and to consider means to aid financially congregations throughout the city. All action taken by the delegates is subject to ratification by the individual synagogues.
Rabbi Jacob Leibowitz, executive director of the Union, explained that the delegates represented only a fraction of New York’s orthodox Jews, but that “fully 80 per cent of the 700 congregations in Greater New York are in sympathy with our movement.”
Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, president of the union and a member of the committee which organized Sunday’s conference, told the representatives that “we are here to increase synagogue membership, to better organization and to aid finances.”
Dr. Moses Hyamson, rabbi of the Orach Chaim Congregation, pleaded for the need of unity and organization and urged his hearers to work together so that some day “all mankind will form one brotherhood.”
Arthur I. LeVine, treasurer of the union and chairman of the committee in charge of the conference, who presided Sunday, emphasized the importance of training the young in the tenets of Judaism.
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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.
