Dr. Gerson D. Cohen, president-elect of the Jewish Theological Seminary, has called for “commitment to the values of Jewish faith and practices with dispassionate research and critical examination of the Jewish past and present,” so as to achieve “the reemergence of an autonomous and self-sustaining diaspora tradition on American soil.”
Speaking on “The Jewish People in an Age of Revolution” at the 72nd annual convention of the (Conservative) Rabbinical Assembly, which concluded yesterday, Dr. Cohen said that “a new form of religious participation between laity and scholar is taking place,” and that “the layman can no longer be a mere passive receiver in the community, but must be granted a role as a creative participant in the religions process of decision-making.”
In this connection, he observed that a growing number of women “are assuming roles in Conservative Judaism as members of the Seminary faculty and as influential members in the councils of local communities, thus taking on a new role in the shaping of Jewish tradition.” Dr. Cohen proposed a restructuring of the rabbinate to make it professional-oriented, with rabbis specially trained “so they can operate most efficiently as pastor-teacher, scholar, communal worker, researcher, and so on.”
He also proposed “new vehicles for lay education from childhood through college”; the granting of “a new and added dignity to Jewish women through the use of halacha as a living process”; “a genuine American Judaism that will generate its own interpretation of the messianic tradition, adopted to modern needs, on the basis of continuing Jewish tradition, one that will synthesize our new culture with our tradition”; and finally, “a Judaism for American Jews that is at home with itself, that will satisfy the educated Jew that is so much a part of our people, a Jewry that can participate in the revolutionary world in which we live.”
END SECOND-CLASS CITIZENSHIP OF WOMEN
The “recognition of women as thinking people” with “the right to vote in their congregations” was urged on the convention by Mrs. Henry N. Rapaport, president of the National Women’s League of the United Synagogue of America. “Our 18-year-olds are voting for the President of the United States,” she declared. “Our (200,000) Sisterhood women, second-class citizens, have no ballot in all too many of our synagogues.”
She said she was “asking for the recognition of the right of capable women to take their places as individuals at the policy – and decision-making levels, as well as in the implementation of the projects and policies determined by–let us face it, gentlemen–undemocratically designated boards of directors with a token place for women,” Her audience was all-male, except for rabbis’ wives.
Calling the present setup “an abomination,” Mrs. Rapaport said “a firm statement giving positive direction” was overdue, “I am not talking about hair length and informal clothes,” she went on, “but about relaxed ethical values and permissive sex codes. I believe that we, the people, the members of your congregations, are ready to listen to what only you can tell us. We will welcome clearly defined guides on moral behavior and social responsibility….Gentlemen, we need your strong leadership.”
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