One hundred and fifty delegates attending a special Israeli conclave of the Rabbinical Council of America met today with Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion before starting an organized study tour of religious conditions in Israel.
Rabbi Charles Weinberg, president of the Orthodox rabbinical group, told the delegates at the opening session yesterday that the Hebrew language alone would not unite American and Israeli Jewry. He added such unity “must flow from a joint emphasis on Jewish traditions, religious values and practices.”
The Orthodox rabbis, many of whom arrived in Israel a few days before the conference opened, met yesterday with Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Nissim and visited the Heichal Shlomo, headquarters of the Israel Religious Council and the Chief Rabbinate. Later they met with Interior Minister Moshe Shapiro, a Mizrachi leader, in a review of Israel’s current religious problems and particularly those of religious education.
The delegates also attended a lecture by Jewish Agency chairman Moshe Sharett on Israel and the Diaspora and attended in the evening a symposium on spiritual relations between Israeli and Diaspora Jewry.
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