Reform Jews in Hungary Refuse to Participate in World Union Conference

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The Reform communities of Hungarian Jewry, invited to participate with American, British, German and other representatives of Liberal Jewish congregations in the conference of the World Union for Progressive Judaism which will open in Berlin on August 18, have declined the invitation, it became known here today.

Paul Sandor, member of the Hungarian parliament and outstanding leader of the Reform Jews in Hungary, replying to the invitation of Miss Lily Montague, Secretary of the World Union, gave several reasons for their decision.

Two statements made by Mr. Sandor are particularly striking, one to the effect that the constant persecutions of the Jews in Hungary have brought the assimilationist Hungarian Jewry back to the Shulchan Aruch, Jewish religious code of observances, and secondly, that modern Reform leads to baptism.

“Constant persecutions have restored Hungarian Jewry to the Shulchan Aruch and therefore attendance at the Congress on Liberal Judaism is useless,” Deputy Sandor wrote. “Moreover, Hungary Jewry is satisfied with the existing three religious tendencies and a fourth is unnecessary because modern reforms lead straight to the baptismal fount. Sunday services constitute an introduction to baptism, as witnessed in the sad experiences in Hungary in the last decades.”

Prior to the formal refusal of the invitation, Deputy Sandor held the matter under advisement, consulting official Jewish bodies as to whether they regarded his attendance at the conference desirable. It was pointed out the views represented by the World Union for Progressive Judaism with regard to the use of Hebrew in the services, the holding of Sunday services and the right of women to vote and be elected in the Jewish communal bodies are far more advanced than those represented by the Hungarian Jewish Community, which belongs to the Conservative school, standing midway between Orthodox and Liberal Judaism.