Resolutions favoring the five-day working week, condemning discrimination against Jews in employment and in educational institutions, commending President Hoover’s accomplishment of interanational debt suspension, endorsing world disarmament and condemning the Michigan alien registration law as “incompatible with the spirit of the American Constitution,” were passed at the closing session of the Rabbinical Assembly of America yesterday.
Rabbi Israel H. Levinthal of the Brooklyn Jewish Center was re-elected president of the Rabbinical Assembly. Other officers elected were Rabbi Jacob Kohn of New York, vice-president; Rabbi Benjamin Birnbaum of Chicago, treasurer; Rabbi Leon S. Lang of Newark, recording secretary, and Rabbi Simon Greenberg of Philadelphia, corresponding secretary.
The question of birth control roused a controversy at the rabbinical convention, and after a discussion it was referred to the committee on the interpretation of the Jewish law, which is to study the question and report at next year’s convention.
A resolution was also adopted to appoint a committee to define the attitude of Conservative Judaism towards the fundamental problems of Judaism. Dr. Cyrus Adler’s suggestion to make the last day of Succoth a Seminary Day was also adopted. It was also decided to maintain a rabbinical summer school and to publish a Jewish scientific journal.
Rabbi A. M. Heller of Brooklyn introduced resolutions pledging support to Palestine and European relief funds and to cable greetings to the Zionist Congress in Basle. These resolutions were adopted.
ENDORSE DEBT MORATORIUM
Rabbi Moses Abels introduced resolutions endorsing a debt moratorium as furthering international good will, a fiveday working week as just and helpful to Sabbath observance and protesting against groups and religions in industry and colleges as un-American. The rabbis petitioned both employers and the government to take immediate and adequate steps to relieve the present distress. On motion of Rabbi Morris Silverman of Hartford the convention went on record as being opposed to any calendar change which might endanger the Sabbath.
Another resolution passed by the Rabbinical Assembly opposes military training in American colleges. Prof. M. M. Kaplan secured a unanimous declaration urging synagogues not to sacrifice educational standards and qualified Hebrew teachers for the sake of economy. Prof. Kaplan also advocated a rabbinical apprentice system for young graduates, and was supported in this by Rabbis Hillel Kaewar of Denver and Charles Hoffman of Newark.
The convention of the Rabbinical As- Continued on Page 3
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
