A group of Orthodox Jews opposed to the new Sabbath day recreation program introduced at the YM & YWHA here is withdrawing from membership in the Health Club of the Y’s northern branch, it was reported today.
Last week Y President Alex Fisher, answering a protest by 15 local rabbis against the Y’s new policy of remaining open on Saturday afternoons said the innovation was “unique” and that it “will not conflict in any way with Sabbath services.” He also said that more emphasis will be put on “spiritual values.”
Rabbi Moses Burak of Beth Jacob synagogue here, said today that many of the 700 Orthodox Jews who are members of the Y’s Bathurst Street branch have turned in their membership cards to protest the Sabbath program. He criticized the Saturday program “as an opening wedge that will lead to outright violation of the Sabbath.” Objecting to the program providing spiritual instruction, the rabbis said that “religion is not their field, they can’t be relied on in this complex area.”
Mr. Fisher said today that no resignations have been turned in by board members because of the program. He reiterated his statement of last week that the program was introduced to keep Jewish youngsters away from trouble at Yorkville, Toronto’s “Hippel” area and also to ease overcrowding at the Y on Sundays. While some 70 Ys in the United States have Sabbath programs, Winnipeg has been, for the last 18 years, the only area in Canada where a Y has had a Sabbath program.
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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.
