Rabbi Eleazar Silver of Springfield, Mass., was unanimously elected and installed as president for the ensuing year of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada when the Union’s 29th annual convention adjourned here today after three and a half days of sessions. Following the close of last year’s convention when Rabbi Israel Rosenberg, although elected, declined to serve as president, Rabbi Silver was chosen to fill the vacancy.
Rabbi Joseph Konvitz of Newark; Rabbi C. I. Block of Jersey City and Rabbi Chaim Fischl Epstein of Brooklyn were chosen vice-presidents. Rabbi C. B. Motelivitz of Harrisburg, Pa., was named treasurer; Rabbi M. B. Tomashoff of Brooklyn, financial secretary; Rabbi L. Seltzer of Broklyn, general secretary and Rabbi Isaac Siegel of Jersey City, chairman of the executive committee.
Before the election of officers there was discussion as to how to aid Rabbi D. B. Shapiro, Chief Rabbi of Kovno, in his determination to renew the spiritual life of the Jews in that country through aid to Yeshivas and religious schools.
Unless immediate financial aid is given, many yeshivas here and abroad will have to close, so precarious is their situation, reported Rabbi Epstein of Chicago. A proposal for a federation of yeshivas which would make a joint appeal for funds, was tabled for future consideration, following the visit of a delegation of American rabbis to Europe and Palestine to make a close study of the situation abroad.
Among the resolutions adopted was one to ask the Allied Jewish Campaign for $250,000 to be applied to Yeshiva relief. Rabbi Silver told the convention that the leaders of the campaign had informed him that they will grant sixty per cent of that sum and he believes the full amount can be obtained. “If this sum appears large to you,” he declared, “I tell you that we cannot afford to cheapen the Torah. With all the force at our comand we must demand this. The yeshivas provide the light of faith for our people.”
In other resolutions that were approved, the rabbis condemned the alien registration bills, opposed the calendar reform and urged that steps be taken to interest the younger rabbis in the aims of the orthodox Union. A plan for a sustaining membership of the Union was also ratified.
Resolutions asking strict supervision of kashruth for public banquets, especially those marking the opening of a drive, and an appeal to orthodox parents not to have conservative or reform rabbis perform marriage ceremonies for their children but to have this rite performed only by full-fledged orthodox rabbis, were adopted.
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