An intensive effort to revitalize observance of the Sabbath by Conservative Jews throughout the United States and Canada was endorsed here today by the 275 members of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, meeting at their 51st annual convention at the Hotel Concord. The Rabbis pledged themselves to make observance of the Sabbath the primary task in their congregations during the coming year. Rabbi Max Davidson was re-elected president of the Assembly for a one year term.
In his report of the activities of the Assembly during the 1950-51 period, Rabbi Max J. Routtenberg, executive vice-president, pointed out: “The American Jewish community continues to be the most understaffed religious denomination in American life. Hundreds of small, isolated Jewish communities throughout the land are compelled to go without any spiritual leadership whatsoever, or, what is frequently worse, fall prey to the free-lance charlatans who wreck incalculable damage on their unsuspecting victims.”
Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan, distinguished theologian, said at the afternoon session: “Not until religious leaders of the principal religions in the world can agree on some minimum workable program that would make possible an organization which would render religious diversity compatible with ecumenical unity, can religion amount to more than a verbalization of wishful thinking.”
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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.
