Central Conference of American Rabbis Hears Important Recommendations

The fifty-third annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis which opened here last night, heard a number of important recommendations from its president, Dr. James G. Heller, who in his presidential address emphasized the fact that “the whole system of religion upon which democracy is built is now under attack.”

Speaking of the war, Dr. Heller recommended that ” a special committee be appointed to draw up a more extended statement to be directed to the President on behalf of the Conference , assuring him and the country of our understanding of the need for unlimited sacrifice by all, so that this war may be won and the way cleared for a better world.”

Dr. Heller also recommended that a meeting of the religious bodies of America be convoked. Such a gathering, he claimed, would have a fourfold purpose, to make explicit that the heart of this conflict is religious, to exhibit the relation between democracy and religion, to point out that all religions are united upon the beliefs that are now in jeopardy, and to set some means of conference and cooperation.

Reporting on the efforts of the Conference to secure chaplains for the Army, Dr. Heller recommended ratification by the Conference of the arrangements made with the Jewish welfare Board. He also recommended that the Conference remit the dues of all its members who serve or will during this war, with the Army or Navy.

URGES ACCEPTANCE OF INVITATION TO JOIN GENERAL JEWISH COUNCIL

Dr. Heller, in his message, also urged the Conference of American Rabbis to instruct its representatives on the Synagogue Council to cast their votes to accept the invitation to join the General Jewish Council. He stipulated, however, that this invitation be accepted only after the “big four” agencies plus the Council of the Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, adopt a program embodying the six points offered by Edgar Kaufmann’s committee at the General Assembly of the Council of the Federations and Welfare Funds held in Chicago early this month. The point of view shared by many with regard to the General Jewish Council, he said , is that differences in so-called ideologies have little or no pertinence to the problems and tasks of Jewish defense, also that unity is valuable for a minimum of effectiveness.

Speaking of the closer relationship that has arisen between the three rabbinical bodies, Dr. Heller recommended that ” the Conference approve the report of the Committee, and that arrangements be made to meet in Atlantic City, in June, 1943, together with the Rabbinical Council and the Rabbinical Assembly. ” He outlined the reasons for the failure of Reform Judaism to win over the masses of Jews in America. “The misrepresentation of Reform Judaism among their (Orthodox) leaders; the exclusiveness of our temples; their tendency to identify themselves with an economic class; their antipathy towards Zionism; and finally, the lethargy and quietism that soon settled upon them” were some of the main reasons, he said.