The Rabbinical Assembly, association of Conservative Rabbis, took steps today to meet “a desperate need in Israel today for an alternative religious expression” to Orthodox Judaism, Rabbi Ralph Simon of Chicago, vice president of the Assembly, told the organization’s 68th annual convention that he would leave for Israel in a few weeks to consult with lay and rabbinic leaders of the Israeli Conservative and Reform Institutions on measures to further the program.
Rabbi Myron Fenster of Rosly, N.Y., chairman of the Assembly’s Israel Committee, who has just returned from conferences in Israel, reported that 32 Conservative rabbis are now serving there, In congregations and as faculty members in universities and other educational institutions, as well as in youth villages and as student advisors on campuses.
Rabbi Simon said that the Rabbinical Assembly was also prepared to bring promising youth Israelis to the United States to study for the rabbinate at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America for service in Israel. He said there was a desperate need in Israel today for an alternative religious expression At the present time, the average Israeli who is unhappy with the established Orthodox tradition and who cannot satisfy his spiritual needs with that type of rigid fundamentalism is left with inadequately supported and few means of expressing his religious feelings.”
The program is supported in Israel by the Assembly’s Kial Yisrael fund, to which only rabbis contribute.
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