The Metropolitan Board of Orthodox Rabbis issued a statement today calling on Orthodox Jewry “to refrain from the religious use” of the new translation of the Torah scheduled to be published next January by the Jewish Publication Society of America. According to the Jewish Publication Society, the translation is the first to be made directly from the traditional Hebrew text.
The New York rabbinic body rejected the JPS translation on the grounds that “A number of the translators are members of the non-Orthodox Jewish clergy and as such are utterly disqualified to serve as teachers of Judaism or Torah translators to Orthodox Jewry.”
“Though the full text is not yet available, the act of rejection by the Metropolitan Board of Orthodox Rabbis stands for the present, and is based on the absence of Orthodox religious authority plus the personal non-Orthodox status of several of the translators,” the statement declared.
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