Convention of Reform Jewry Opposes Gambling in Synagogues

Resolutions opposing the use of gambling for synagogue fund-raising and against state intervention to enforce adoption of children of the same faith as adoptive parents were approved today by delegates to the 45th General Assembly of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

“The use of gambling as a means of raising funds for the synagogue and the practice of gambling on synagogue premises is not compatible with proper synagogue standards,” said one resolution which was overwhelmingly approved after lengthy debate. Representatives of Reform synagogues opposed to the resolution said after the vote that while the resolution did not make the ban mandatory, they would find other means of raising funds.

On the issue of cross-faith adoptions, the delegates said that while they favored the principle of the same religion for adoptive children and parents, they opposed “the use, officially or unofficially, of the power of the state to carry out this religious objective.” The resolution contended that the goal “should be striven for through the influence of each religious group upon its own adherents. The use of the power of the state for such a religious objective is a violation of the principle of separation of church and state.”

ASKS STATE DEPT. TO PROTEST AGAINST TREATMENT OF JEWS IN RUSSIA

In another resolution, the delegates urged the U.S. State Department “to protest through proper channels the denial of equal rights and privileges to the Jews of the Soviet Union.”

The delegates also went on record as favoring “the elimination of all restrictions and prohibitions against the dissemination of birth control information and the rendering of birth control assistance by qualified physicians, clinics and hospitals.”

The Reform leaders also denounced injection of religious issues in election campaigns. “We express our dismay over statements made and positions taken by a few religious groups in outright opposition to the possible nomination for President or Vice President of the United States of any person of the Roman Catholic faith,” a resolution stated. The delegates called for application of “the principle of freedom of religion” in the selection of candidates for public office.

Yaacov Herzog, Israel Minister Plenipotentiary, told the convention that “paradoxically enough, as Israel’s statehood matures, the interest of the people of Israel in American Jewry, far from weakening, is constantly growing. On the other side,” he added, “American Jewry has acknowledged redemption in Israel as the central theme of Jewish experience in our time.”

American Jews who move from cities to suburbs to avoid civil rights problems and thereby turn “a social defeat into a moral disaster” were condemned by a Reform leader at a session yesterday. Marvin Braiterman, member of the UAHC National Commission on Social Action for Reform Judaism, denounced Jews “running from the cities to the suburbs and carrying their temples with them because of a purported invasion of white neighborhoods by non-whites.”