The 32nd annual national convention of Agudath Israel of America closed its three-day deliberations here with the adoption of a series of resolutions charting the organization’s activities in the U.S. and in Israel and the issuance of an appeal to the United States Government to stop arming the Arab countries.
The conclave, which was attended by 700 delegates, called upon the Jewish federations and welfare funds throughout the country to include financial support for Yeshivoths in their community education budgets, and resolved to establish an Orthodox teacher’s training school to train devoutly religious pedagogues for Yeshivoths and Talmud Torahs throughout the country.
Other resolutions adopted by the convention include plans to establish a religious children’s village in Israel for children from North Africa, praising the educational activities of Ozar Hatorah amongst the Jewish youth in the Near Eastern countries, and calling upon the Israel Government to cover 100 percent of the budget of the network of independent Torah schools sponsored by Agudath Israel in Israel. “The American Agudah organization will remain on the continuous alert against any attempt to implement religious women’s draft in Israel, while pressing for repeal of women’s conscription in any form,” the convention pledged.
At a special session devoted to the “dangers of reformist trends in the U.S.,” the convention called upon all Jews to unite in a “last-minute effort to prevent an irreparable schism which would tear the Jewish community apart into two warring camps, if the Conservative rabbinate implements its plans to establish changes in the sacred rites of marriage and divorce laws.”
The convention re-elected a presidium consisting of Rabbi Eliezer Silver, Cincinnati; Rabbi Elijah M. Bloch, Cleveland; Rabbi Mordecai S. Friedman, Rabbi Jacob Kamenetzky and Louis J. Septimus, Michael G. Tress as administrative president and Rabbi Morris Sherer, executive vice-president. The Zeirei Agudath Israel, organization of Agudist youth, which conducted its national convention at the same time, elected Rabbi Bernard Weinberger of New York as president.
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