Rabbinical Assembly of America Opens Four-day Convention

The 54th annual conference of the Rabbinical Assembly of America, the association of 600 Conservative rabbis, opened here today to discuss problems confronting the American Jewish Community today, including the relationship of American Jewry to Israel, a re-evaluation of Zionism and the status of Jewish education and culture, particularly among adults.

Addressing the opening session of the four-day convention, Rabbi Ira Eisenstein, president of the Assembly, said that the American Jewish community’s “failure to clarify to ourselves and to the world our character, structure and status as a group” was an obstacle in the effort to plan for most effective community cooperation.

“We Jews and Zionists are paying a high price for our failure to clarify our status,” Rabbi Eisenstein declared. “Israelis and official Zionists have embraced the doctrine of Kibbutz Galuyot, and have given the world the impression that the Jewish people as a whole intend to emigrate to Israel. The Arabs cannot visualize world Jewry’s fitting into the narrow confines of present-day Israel’s boundaries. In the face of such fears, the American Government asks Israel to curtail immigration.

“But obviously, Israel can do no such thing,” Rabbi Eisenstein continued. “However, there is something we Jews can do: and that is to declare openly that Kibbutz Galuyot is a limited doctrine, intended to establish Israel for the persecuted Jews of all lands and for those who wish to fulfill themselves as Jews by living in Israel. However, Jewish communities in the Diaspora regard themselves as permanently established, united by bonds of religion, culture and kinship to fellow Jews everywhere, including Israel.”