The president of the American Reform rabbinate proposed tonight that representatives of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbinical agencies meet to consider how to mount a joint campaign in a common effort to win unaffiliated Jews to synagogue membership.
The proposal was made in an interview by Rabbi Herman Schaalman, of Chicago, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, during the opening session here of the 93rd annual convention of the CCAR.
Schaalman said “the time has come for our Orthodox colleagues to accept the validity of Reform Judaism, set aside their differences and join in a common effort, together with Conservative rabbis, to dramatize the vitality of religious Judaism to those who have become alienated.”
Schaalman’s evident expectation that opposition to such a united effort approach would come from Orthodox rabbis and not from Conservative rabbis was confirmed by a statement from Rabbi Arnold Goodman of Minneapolis, president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the association of Conservative rabbis.
CONSERVATIVE RABBI APPROVED
Goodman declared “we congratulate Rabbi Schaalman on his forthright talk for a common effort to win unaffiliated Jews into the fold of the synagogue. We welcome every opportunity to bring together the Jewish religious community so that we may better serve American and world Jewry.”
Schaalman said he regretted that too many Jews “define themselves in secular terms.” He said “surely we and our Orthodox and Conservative kinsmen are on the same side of the battle line regarding this challenge.” He also said he felt such a common effort would also assist in rebuilding the Jewish family and provide a vehicle to combat such other concerns as the low Jewish birthrate, Jewish population shifts, and increase in Jewish divorces, and to intensify Jewish education, and, in time, “we could even affect the religious life in Israel.”
A spokesman for the CCAR was asked by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency just how such a cooperative congregational recruiting effort would work, given the hostility of the Orthodox rabbinate to non-Orthodox forms of Judaism. The spokesman replied that Schaalman was seeking agreement on approval for the proposal by the three rabbinic groups first, with details on procedure to be worked out once approval had been achieved.
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