Jewish Students Plan Takeover of Temple Emanuel Pulpit to Present Anti-war Demands

A spokesman for the Radical Jewish Union, an organization of students and faculty members at Columbia University, said today that the activist group was proceeding with plans to take over the pulpit of Temple Emanuel during Friday afternoon services to present a series of demands for congregational support of anti-Vietnam war efforts. Dr. Nathan Perilman, senior rabbi of the Reform congregation, reaffirmed, in a telephoned statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, that he would call police to deal with any attempt by the Jewish activists to seize the pulpit Friday. Rabbi Perilman also told the JTA that he had offered, by telephone, and would send a registered letter to confirm an alternative to the RJU proposal to address congregants during the hour-long vesper service Friday, which begins at 5 p.m. He said he had offered the RJU use of the assembly room of the building, the largest Reform temple in the world, for an hour, starting at the end of the vesper service. He added he had told the activist group that a statement would be made at the close of the service, informing the congregants of the request of the RJU to be heard.

The RJU spokesman, commenting on the rabbi’s offer, said the student group had rejected it as unacceptable, citing Talmudic sources that any Jew has the right to address a worship service on matters of Jewish concern. The RJU source added that legal advisers had been contacted who had agreed to be present at the scene in the event of police action and that members of the protesting group were prepared to be arrested. Rabbi Perilman said his stand was based on the belief that the pulpit was inviolable. He said no students or other laymen had ever spoken from the Temple Emanuel pulpit. He disclosed that when James Forman, a black activist, had announced he would appear at Temple Emanuel last May to demand contributions for a “reparations fund” from Christian and Jewish congregations for the sufferings of blacks in the United States, he had offered an identical proposal to Mr. Forman. The Jewish Defense League sent a number of its members, carrying clubs and chains to the synagogue on the date of Mr. Forman’s scheduled appearance but he did not appear. Rabbi Perilman denounced the JDL for its action.

In the initial approach to Temple Emanuel, the RJU asked for the opportunity to speak during the services to present three “demands.” These were that the congregation sponsor an advertisement in a large New York City newspaper condemning United States participation in the Vietnam war and demanding immediate withdrawal of all American forces; that the congregation provide space and facilities for anti-war organizers; and that the congregation affirm support of the Jewish student movement to end the war. According to the RJU spokesman the proposals were conveyed in both correspondence and by telephone to Rabbi Perilman and other synagogue officials. The RJU spokesman said the proposals were rejected by Rabbi Perilman. The RJU spokesman said that about 100 students, faculty members, rabbinical students at the Jewish Theological Seminary and “sympathetic rabbis” in the area would join in the effort to present the demands to the congregation.