Conservative Leaders Pay Tribute to United Synagogue Women on Golden Jubilee

The 200,000 members of the National Women’s League of the United Synagogue of America were accorded “alumnae” status by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America as part of a tribute paid them by the leaders of Conservative Judaism on the occasion of the League’s 50th anniversary. A citation conferring the honorary title was presented to Mrs. Sol Henkind, president of the League, by Dr. Bernard Mandelbaum, Seminary president, at a banquet tonight marking the Golden Jubilee Year of the women’s group.

Earlier, the organization, which is affiliated with 800 Conservative synagogues in the United States and Canada, was hailed by Rabbi Louis Finkelstein, Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, who praised its membership for their role “in the preservation of the Jewish tradition.” He called them upholders of “the ideal of the Jewish home beautiful” and said that the Women’s League “through its influence on the other central institutions of Conservative Judaism and on the strengthening of family life, will be a potent force for the maintenance of Judaism in our time.”

The National Women’s League of the United Synagogue of America was founded in January, 1918, by Mrs. Solomon Schechter, wife of the Seminary’s second president. It is the women’s arm of Conservative Judaism and conducts a wide range of religious, educational and service activities reaching the Jewish and general communities in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

The Jubilee tribute consisted of a Luncheon and banquet and was highlighted by Torah sessions conducted by Professors Shalom Paul and Avraham Holtz of the Seminary, attended by 700 women.

Rabbi Simon Greenberg, Vice Chancellor of the Seminary, told the women in an address at the Jubilee banquet that “religious leaders must be active in the reconstruction of the social, economic and political order, but they must not do so at the price of abandoning or even neglecting their primary historic role of helping the individual to fashion himself ever more completely in accordance with the image of God which has been bestowed upon him.” Rabbi Greenberg said that “the home and mother are religion’s indispensable allies” in fashioning “the moral and ethical personality.”

Achievement awards were presented to 36 sisterhoods throughout the continent for their outstanding service to Judaism and 50 additional sisterhoods received honorable mention. Jubilee awards for “exceptional contributions to the spiritual and educational enrichment” of the American Jewish community were presented to Dr. Evelyn Garfiel, of New York City, Mrs. David A. Goldstein, of Philadelphia and Mrs. B. Reuben Weilerstein of Atlantic City, N.J.