Rabbi Steven Schwarzschild Resigns As Editor of Aj Congress Charging Interference

An official of the American Jewish Congress confirmed today the resignation of Rabbi Steven Schwarzschild as editor of the organization’s intellectual publication, “Judaism,” but denied the rabbi’s charge that he had been forced out. Rabbi Schwarzschild, editor since 1962, said he had resigned because of “constant interference” with his “editorial freedom.” Dr. Robert Gordis, a noted biblical scholar, has been named to replace him. He is a founder and first board chairman of the quarterly publication.

Rabbi Schwarzschild said that the issue which led to his decision to quit was a debate over publication of an article attacking the Jewish “establishment.” The article, “Jewish New Leftism at Berkeley,” was written by Michael P. Lerner, assistant professor of philosophy at Washington University in Seattle. Prof. Lerner wrote that before Jewish youth could be “effectively reached” by a message from Jewish radicals, the present-day synagogue “will have to be smashed.” The article called the United Synagogue, the Conservative congregational body, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. the Reform agency and the Synagogue Council of America, representing the three major Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbinical lay groups, “sewers which allow of significant reform.” Richard Cohen, associate director of the AJ Congress, praised Rabbi Schwarzschild’s work as editor and denied he was “forced out.” He said the resignation was brought about by “administrative difficulties, weariness and his own desires to free himself from the burden of the magazine in order to write a book he had been planning to do for some years.”