Conservative rabbis in Israel are not only being denied the rights and privileges which they enjoy in all other free countries, but the power of the state of Israel is used to bring pressure upon Conservative religious organizations in the United States, the 50th convention of the Rabbinical Assembly of America was told today.
Reporting on alleged discrimination against Conservative rabbis in Israel, Rabbi David Aronson of Minneapolis told the convention in his presidential address that only Orthodox rabbis are recognized in Israel. He cited a number of cases showing that Israel recognizes only the divorces granted in the United States by the Union of Orthodox Rabbis and not by Conservative rabbis.
On the other hand, the president of the Rabbinical Assembly praised the Israel rabbinate, especially the Sephardic rabbis, for agreeing to the ban on child marriages and to the restriction of polygamy practices which prevail among Jews from Moslem countries. He also urged the convention to consider the latest proposal made by Israel to the U.N. Trusteeship Council with regard to Jerusalem as “politically realistic and morally just.”
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