The sum of $455. 000 was contributed here today at a four-day national mobilization of Reform Jewry’s lay and rabbinic leadership in the opening gun of the 1957-58 Combined Campaign for Reform Judaism. The goal of the drive, which supports Union of American Hebrew Congregations and Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Reform rabbinic seminary, is $2, 610, 433.
Prior to the coming forward of contributions, A. B. Polinsky, general chairman of the Combined Campaign, told 600 leaders at the National Leadership Mobilization that American Jews are literally endangering the continuity of their faith by a failure to accord their principal religious bodies the same generosity they extend to other Jewish causes.
Of the $130, 000, 000 contributed for the support of Jewish health, welfare, refugee and overseas programs, considerably less than $5, 000, 000-or under four percent–is being made available for institutions that have as their goal the preservation- strengthening and advancement of Judaism. “The financial starvation of Judaism by Jews can be just as harmful as the physical attacks upon it by its enemies,” Mr. Polinsky insisted.
At a banquet here tonight, the Reform movement honored Dr. Nelson Glueck on the 10th anniversary of his accession to the presidency of HUC-JIR. Dr, Maurice N. Eisendrath: president of the UAHC, addressing the delegates at an earlier session, said that Reform Judaism must give “real religious answers” to the various problems that beset the action’s youth, parents and communities. Failure to get these answers, he added, will result in Judaism’s becoming “a religious fossil.”
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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.
