Agreement on a joint process by which B’nai B’rith Women (BBW) and B’nai B’rith International (BBI) will seek means for a “productive partnership,” announced today, has apparently ended BBW plans to quit BBI and set up an independent organization.
In a joint statement, Beverly Davis, BBW president, and Gerald Kraft, BBI president, said the two agencies were starting a joint planning process “to explore alternatives that may be available for women and men in the B’nai B’rith family” to provide them the opportunity “for individual identity and agenda, and the sharing of responsibility, programs and projects.” The proposal had been approved by the BBI Board of Governors and the BBW Executive Board.
A lengthy series of charges and counter-charges followed disclosure of plans by the BBI to consider at its next convention admission of women to presently mainly-male chapters, which the BBW treated as an attempt to weaken the BBW and a threat to its programs.
After meetings on May 8 and May 9, officers of the BBW and BBI agreed to name a special joint committee to examine possibilities of a relationship acceptable to both groups. The committee will make a preliminary report to the governing bodies of BBW and BBI by next December, with a final report by next February.
BBW said it had rescinded a resolution calling for separation from BBI, cancelled the rest of a series of “town hall” meetings to explain the impasse, and postponed its special delegate assembly, scheduled for June, at which the separation resolution had been expected to be approved.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
