Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, denied today that there was any official discrimination against non-Orthodox Jews in Israel and condemned American Jews who made such charges. He told the 23rd annual convention of the Orthodox group that the Government of Israel was giving insufficient recognition to “its outstanding religious heritage” to the detriment of American-Israel Jewish relations.
“There is no lawful discrimination against any Israeli inhabitant because of his viewpoint, opinion or creed, “Rabbi Rackman said. He added that Israel’s Orthodox rabbinate “does not control or dominate the religious practices of Israel’s population. Israel’s religious leaders only desire is that the legal order of the state shall conform with historic Jewish jurisprudence.”
He condemned the American Jews who “are resorting to slogan-thinking about the problems of religious freedom in Israel. These distorted versions of the status of the constitutional freedom in Israel are responsible for the humiliation of American Jews and the declination of loyalty to the structure and faith of Judaism,” he asserted.
Rabbi Rackman said that the teaching of Hebrew was “not enough to link American and Israel Jews,” He said any close cultural and religious ties must be based “on the historical teachings, values and concepts found in the Bible and Talmud.”
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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.
