More than 100 Reform rabbis have cited an “increasing pre-occupation” by Reform organizations “with appeasing the Orthodox and Conservative establishments” as a major reason for their decision to form an Association for a Progressive Reform Judaism. A precursor dissident group was formed in Atlanta on June 21, 1973, in protest against a resolution adopted by the 1973 convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the association of Reform rabbis, which opposed participation by CCAR members in mixed marriages.
Members of that group, meeting in St. Louis last week, voted to adopt the new name and a broader program. The new organization elected Dr. Eugene Mihaly, professor of rabbinic literature at the Hebrew Union College -Jewish Institute of Religion, the Reform seminary, as its president.
The sponsors also asserted that there was a “tendency” in some organizations of Reform Judaism to “restrict the freedom which Reform Judaism came into being to promote and preserve,” as well as “a widening intellectual and spiritual gulf between segments of the Reform rabbinate and the Reform laity.” The un-named Reform organizations also were accused of failing to address “the problems and concerns of the Reform constituency: the men and women who have been instructed and confirmed in the Reform Temple and who seek religious fulfillment within the Reform community.”
ASSOCIATION GOALS OUTLINED
The goals of the new association were listed as including efforts “to support and advance the freedom and creativity inherent in the genius of American Reform Judaism” and to “preserve and enhance the autonomy and self-determination of American Reform Judaism.” Another goal listed was “to strengthen the role of laymen in the decision making process of Reform Judaism as regards education, liturgy, ritual and the like.”
Upholding “the freedom of Reform Jewish religious expression within Jewish communities everywhere” and bringing “the fruits of the American Reform Jewish experience to world Jewry” also were listed as association goals.
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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.
