Central Conference of American Rabbis Denies Charges of Houston Congregation

The Central Conference of American Rabbis today made public the text of a reply to the charges against it voiced in resolutions adopted recently by Congregation Beth Israel of Houston, Texas. The Houston congregation had charged the organization of Reform Rabbis with becoming Zionistic and with abandoning the essentials of Reform Judaism.

“Without considering for the moment the specifications of the charge, the general case can well be admitted, namely, that Reform Judaism as expressed in ideas and utterances of most members of the Central Conference does indeed represent a departure from some of the ideas and practices laid down by Reform Jewish leaders in past generations,” Rabbi Solomon B. Freehof, president of the Conference writes. “It is only an Orthodoxy which dares not depart from ‘classic’ patterns laid down by past generations. It is the principle of Orthodoxy that all laws authentically deduced from past laws are sacred and represent the will of God, and that customs which have been widely accepted in the past have the force of law and may not be abolished even when circumstances change. But Reform Judaism is a liberal Judaism. It proclaims the right of each generation to change customs and rituals and even to restate doctrines, provided the essential principles of Judaism are preserved and strengthened by such changes.”

Taking issue with the by-laws which the Houston congregation recently adopted, and which provoked much criticism among Jews in America, Rabbi Freehof says, in a letter addressed to Leopold L. Meyer, president of the congregation: “The clear purpose of your by-laws is to keep from membership in the congregation those individuals who believe in a Jewish state in Palestine, who believe that Kashrus is an essential practice in Judaism, and that the Hebrew language is indispensable in school and in worship. It is true that if a man cannot subscribe to your by-laws he may become a non-voting member; but of course no self-respecting Jew will join your congregation if he knows that his convictions will disfranchise him and make him a second-class member. Your object is definite, you wish to exclude those who disagree with you on any one of the above points.”

CHANGED ATTITUDE OF REFORM RABBIS TOWARDS ZIONISM IS EXPLAINED

Replying to the charge that the Central Conference of American Rabbis has become Zionistic, Rabbi Freehof points out in his letter that “the Conference has not become Zionistic, but it has ceased to be anti-Zionistic.”

“In past years the Conference, in a number of resolutions, expressed its anti-Zionism,” the reply states. “There were few Zionists in the Conference in those years. By the way, the anti-Zionist majority would have been appalled if anyone during all these years had ever made the un-Jewish suggestion that Zionist Reform Rabbis, disagreeing as they did with the avowed principles of the Conference, should not have the right to vote. As the years went by the number of Zionists in the Conference increased. By this time it may well be that the majority of our members are Zionists. We do not seek to know. We do not submit our members to a credal test.

“The manifest fact now is that there are many, perhaps even a majority, of our members who are both convinced Zionists and convinced Reform Jews. These rabbis do not find their Reform Judaism and their Zionism to be mutually incompatible. It is obvious, then, that there has been a definite change of mood in our Conference. Therefore, in harmony with liberal principles, this new mood was acknowledged in our 1943 Resolution. We recognized the fact, plainly observable in the life of hundreds of our Reform Rabbis, that Reform and Zionism are quite compatible. Each member of our Conference may decide for himself whether to accept or reject Zionism. Whichever way he decides will not affect his status or his moral right to be part of our Conference.”