The Rabbinical Assembly of America, the association of American Conservative Rabbis, confirmed today reports that the organization postponed the holding of a convocation scheduled for this summer in Israel, as a protest against an action against it by religious officials in Israel.
The organization’s executive council canceled the conference because Jewish religious authorities in Israel refused to accept two Jewish divorces executed by the Rabbinical Assembly’s Beth Din (rabbinical court). The conference would have been in the form of a “kinus,” an assembly for contacts with Israelis, rather than a convention, and it would have been the first Conservative “kinus” in Israel.
The executive council took the action after a protest to the Israel Ministry for Religions failed to elicit a satisfactory reply, a spokesman said. He added that negotiations were continuing between the Rabbinical Assembly and officials in Israel in an effort to settle the dispute so that the “kinus” could be scheduled for 1964. It was to have been held in June or July of this year originally, the spokesman said.
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