A special Task Force to fight the efforts of Reform and Conservative Judaism to win recognition in Israel was created at a meeting last week of the Vaad Hanhala of Agudath Israel of America.
The meeting mapped out a broad range of plans to “mobilize American Orthodox Jewry to save Israel from the tragic consequences of transporting to the Holy Land the concept of recognizing ‘three wings of Judaism’ which has been a prime factor in the spiritual assimilation rampant in the United States today.”
The meeting, chaired by Rabbi Shlomo Oppenheimer also urged the Agudath Israel in Israel to forge complete unity within its ranks in order for the movement to continue using its political clout with the government to thwart the “expansionist plans” of the Reform and Conservative groups.
CHARGES AGAINST REFORM, CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENTS
The organization’s ranking body acted after a detailed presentation about the issue was made by Rabbi Moshe Sherer, president of the American Agudath Israel movement, and Rabbi Nosson Scherman, co-chairman of Agudah’s Committee on Torah and Ideology Projects.
Using a series of documents, they demonstrated how the Reform and Conservative movements have in recent months “displayed unprecedented militancy in an accelerated campaign to abolish the sole jurisdiction on religious rites enjoyed by the Orthodox rabbinate in Israel.”
They expressed even greater concern over the methods used by the Conservative group to win official religious status in Israel, because the Conservative’s “mask of traditionalism could dupe the unwary Israeli public, ignorant about their rejection of the divine origin of Torah, into perceiving Conservatism as an authentic expression of Judaism.”
The Agudath Israel organization announced that it will soon publish extensive informational material to “clarify how the deviationist groups of Conservative and Reform by steering masses away from classical Judaism, represent a clear and present danger to Jewish survival.”
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