Pension Plan for Rabbis Announced; to Be Ratified by September

Security for rabbis who have reached the retirement age is now assured through a retirement-pension plan in which the individual rabbi, his congregation and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Central Conference of American Rabbis acting together will participate, it was announced today in a statement issued jointly by Mr. Adolph Rosenberg, chairman of the board of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, for the congregations, and Rabbi James G. Heller, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, for the rabbis.

The announcement of a definite plan climaxes years of study, it was stated. Ratification of at least seventy-five per cent of Union congregations, by September 1, is necessary, so that a group annuity contract can be negotiated covering all rabbis below the pension age of sixty-five and otherwise eligible.

The plan provides for the Union and the Conference to place at the disposal of the Joint Committee on Rabbinical pensions, funds totaling over $220,000 which have been contributed and designated for this purpose. Of this sum, $150,000 is to be given by the Central Conference of American Rabbis from its own Pension Fund, and the rest by the Union of American Hebrew Congregations from the Schiff Fund and from the Joseph Schonthal Fund.

Provisions of the Pension Plan provide that each rabbi is to contribute annually three per cent of his salary, with the Congregation paying seven per cent annually. The Union and Conference, acting jointly, are to pay one to three per cent of his salary annually, depending on the age of the rabbi when he enters the plan. The cost of the latter charge will be defrayed in part out of the above Pension Funds and the remainder incorporated in the Budgets of the Union and Conference. A policy will be issued to the rabbi providing a retirement annuity at the age of sixty-five, and death benefits before that age.