Rabbis Assail Draft Legislation That Eliminates Deferments for Divinity Students

Three rabbis today assailed draft legislation just approved by the House Armed Services Committee that would give the President authority to eliminate deferments for college students and for men in divinity schools. The bill extends the selective service law for two years. Rabbi Solomon J. Sharfman, president of the Synagogue Council of America and Rabbi Henry Siegman, executive vice president, protested the measure in a telegram to Rep. F. Edward Hebert, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. Rabbi Wolfe Kelman, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis, urged that the deferments should be continued. Rabbi Kelman said he was speaking for himself because the Rabbinical Assembly, having just completed its annual convention in Israel, did not have an opportunity to adopt a formal position. He said deferments for divinity students should be continued on the same basis as deferments for students of medicine and other specialties.

“Divinity students should be granted a deferment from military service until the completion of their seminary training at which time they should become available for military service as chaplains in veterans hospitals, mental hospitals, military chaplains and other areas consistent with their training and competence,” Rabbi Kelman said. Rabbis Sharfman and Siegman telegraphed Rep. Hebert on behalf of the Synagogue Council, the umbrella organization of the lay and rabbinical branches of Reform, Conservative and Orthodox Judaism in America. They said, “We wish to express to you our distress that we were not informed of your committee’s hearings on draft reform. We are particularly disturbed that your decision regarding the elimination of divinity student exemptions, which so vitally affects Jewish religious life in the United States, was reached without inviting the official representatives of the religious community to assess its implications. We believe this precipitous action is a service neither to the democratic process nor to the security needs of our country.”