Jewish Leaders Criticize Rabbis for Entering Religious Council in Lithuania

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

A Jewish religious council, to be known as the Jewish Consistory, was created in the Republic of Lithuania by an order of the Minister of the Interior.

Nine rabbis have accepted the invitation of the government to serve on the Council. Jewish lay leaders expressed dissatisfaction with the action of the rabbis in accepting the invitation of the government, in view of the fact that the Jewish population is boycotting the recently enacted bill introduced by the government concerning the organization of the Jewish communities in Lithuania.

The status of the religious council and its function have not yet been defined.

JEWISH COMMUNAL ACTIVITIES

At the fourteenth annual meeting of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of Pittsburgh, Irvin F. Lehman, president, reported the expenditure of $265,000 for social service during the year 1925.

That Pittsburgh was the first city to take steps toward developing a unique philanthropic activity in the form of a United Housing Corporation was reported by Dr. Ludwig Bernstein, Executive Director of the Federation.

The following were elected directors of the Federation for the next three years: Louis J. Adler, Louis A. Behr, Eugene Herzog, Benjamin L. Hirshfield, Edwin May, Alfred M. Oppenheimer, Abraham Oseroff, Charles H. Sachs, and J. H. Frank to fill the unexpired term of the late Solomon Rosenbloom.

The Jewish Centre of Coney Island have engaged Bloch & Hesse as architects for their new building which is to be located at Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, N. Y.

The project will cost about $400,000 and will contain auditorium, gymnasium, swimming pool, club rooms; synagogue and class rooms.

The Rabbi of the Congregation is Louis B. Michaelson and its President is Adolph Balsam.