The Synagogue Council of America announced today the election of Rabbi Edward L. Israel, of Baltimore, as president. Rabbi Israel is the spiritual leader of the Har Sinai Congregation of Baltimore, one of the largest Jewish congregations in the country. He succeeds Dr. David de Sola Pool, rabbi of the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue in New York, the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States.
The Council, composed of lay and rabbinical organizations of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Jews, is organized for the purpose of speaking and acting unitedly to further the common interests of Judaism in America. Its constituent organizations are the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the United Synagogue of America and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the (Reform) Central Conference of American Rabbis, the (Conservative) Rabbinical Assembly and the (Orthodox) Rabbinical Council.
Rabbi Israel is active in the Zionist Organization of America, American Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation Commission, World Jewish Congress, Hebrew Union College Board of Governors and the National Public Housing Conference. During the World War he served as chaplain under Jewish Welfare Board suspices with the Central Conference of American Rabbis, he has been actively engaged in movements for economic and social betterment.
During the year the Council has expanded its work to include collection of statistics of Jewish congregations and of the number and the distribution of the Jews of America. This was accomplished by the Council’s absorption of the Jewish Statistical Bureau. The new Statistical Bureau of the Synagogue Council is headed by Dr. H.S. Linfield. The Bureau provides the United States Census Bureau with statistics of Jewish congregations, their synagogue buildings, expenditures, educational work and ministers.
Other Council officers are Rabbi Max Arzt, first vice-president, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, second vice-president, S. Herbert Golden, treasurer, Benjamin Koenigsberg, recording secretary, and Rabbi Gustave F. Falk, corresponding secretary, all of New York.
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