A proposal that the American Jewish community explore ways of revising its community structures was advanced here by Philip M. Klutznick, a former president of B’nai B’rith and now chairman of the World Jewish Congress’ Governing Council
Klutznick told a B’nai B’rith conference of Jewish academicians and laymen that present representative bodies “are not always adequately staffed or provided with the capacity to study a problem before acting on it.” He suggested “re-examinations of present institutions” to determine ways of better reflecting a Jewish community consensus on political issues.
Klutznick stressed that he was emphasizing studies “In light of our changing needs,” but was not advocating “abandoning what now exists” until the validity and viability of any proposed change had been adequately surveyed.
Asked by a member of the audience whether the time had come to consider re-establishment of a formalized representative assembly such as the American Jewish Conference that existed briefly in the post-World War II era, Klutznick replied that any judgement would be premature. “There may be a need for creating a new structure or for strengthening and broadening the purposes of existing ones,”he said. Any change, he added, “must take into account the voluntary character of Jewish communal life.”
Klutznick illustrated his thesis by citing–and questioning–the advisability of separate national “roof organizations” that now deal respectively with Jewish concerns relating to Israel and Soviet Jewry. The two matters, he declared, have become “inextricably linked as a single political issue” in that relationships between Israel and the USSR must inevitably have a determining effect on Soviet attitudes and reactions to the issue of Soviet Jewry.
The three-day conference, one of a series of B’nai B’rith bicentennial year programs, was devoted to the Jewish community’s “unfinished agenda.” Its 150 participants included some 20 leading Jewish scholars.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
