The use of catering places, public halls and vacation resorts for important religious occasions by “unsynagogue-minded Jews” was assailed by the Central Conference of American Rabbis which concluded its convention here yesterday The 500 delegates to the 76th annual convention of the CCAR elected Rabbi Jacob J. Weinstein of Chicago as president to succeed Rabbi Loon Feuer of Toledo.
A report embodying the criticism of use of such facilities was approved by the delegates. The report charged that such use undermined the sanctity of the synagogue in the process of “salving the conscience” of “peripheral Jews,” The rabbis hit hardest at the resort hotels “which offer vacations opportunities during the High Holy Days and other festival periods” along with “religious services.”
On the occasions, the rabbis charged, the setting and mood were more “in tune with ‘holiday’ than ‘Holy Day’ and the accompanying religious service was “at best artificial and at worst a mockery.”
Use of public halls and catering establishments for Jewish weddings and Bar Mitavahs was similarly condemned. The rabbis said that such settings were “not conducive to the solemnity of the ceremony” and that this demeaned the rabbi into a position “of a hired functionary, one of the staff.” The rabbi also contended that the “traditions” observed in such settings were often “the invention of the entrepreneur or caterer” far from the meaning of Judaism.
The report also criticized the “mushroom synagogue.” a “private enterprise” organized solely for the High Holy Days and “organized primarily for profit,” to the detriment of the synagogue as “the basic institution of Jewish religious life.”
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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.
