Both President Izhak Ben-Zvi and Religious Affairs Minister Zorah Warhaftig were reported today to have refused invitations to attend the convocation tomorrow which will mark the opening of the Hebrew Union College Biblical and Archaeological School, the first under Reform auspices in Israel.
However, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion will deliver the principal address at the convocation and President Ben-Zvi will give a reception for the Hebrew Union College Board of Governors who arrived in Israel for the occasion.
Dr. Nelson Glueck, president of the sponsoring Reform seminary, told a press conference that Reform religious services would be conducted weekly in the school’s chapel. We do not come here as missionaries and there is no intention to organize a Reform congregation, he painted out. The initial disclosure of plans for a synagogue in the school evoked widespread protests from Orthodox elements in Israel.
The school, built at a cost of $750, 000, will serve as a post-doctoral research center for about 20 students annually. Honorary doctorates will be conferred during the convocation on Prof. Yigael Yadin and Prof. Carl Belgen, director emeritus of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.
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