The Rabbinical Assembly, the organization of Conservative rabbis, voted today to suspend participation in the draft of newly ordained rabbis for the military chaplaincy. The action, approved at the 68th annual Assembly convention here, called for cooperation of all Jewish theological seminaries and rabbinical organizations to evolve a new voluntary system which will increase the number of spiritual advisors to men in the armed forces.
The resolution, offered by Rabbi Ralph Simon of Chicago, Assembly vice-president, instructed the organization “to seek, incooperation with the seminaries, rabbinical organizations and the National Jewish Welfare Board, which administers the chaplaincy program, to develop supplementary resources for serving our military personnel,” to include employment of civilian chaplains “on a full time or part time basis.”
Rabbi Max J. Routtenberg of Rockville Center, L.I., chaplaincy committee chairman whose report formed the basis for the vote, said that for a number of years there had been “growing dissatisfaction in rabbinical circles’ over the compulsory draft of chaplains and that there had been “many inequities growing out of the draft system climaxed by a request of the graduating class of the Jewish Theological Seminary,” the Conservative school, that the draft be dropped and replaced by a voluntary system. He added that the four-hour debate at the convention yesterday “revealed the growing crisis of conscience among both seminarians and rabbis arising out of the Vietnam war” but that the “overwhelming sentiment” was that “the needs of the men in service for moral and spiritual guidance must be met” and that the seminarians have been urged “to respond to this call for service on a voluntary basis.”
Earlier this month, Yeshiva University disclosed that it had suspended participation by its Rabbi Isaac Elchanon Seminary in the military chaplaincy draft and has been permitting its graduating students to volunteer since January in a one-year experiment.
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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.
