Reform Rabbis Ok Conscientious Objection As Grounds for Deferment from Chaplaincy

The Central Conference of American Rabbis voted today to grant Reform rabbinic students the right to seek deferments from military chaplaincy service on grounds of conscientious objection to a particular war like the Vietnam conflict. The action was taken at one of the closing sessions of the CCAR’s 79th annual convention here. The Reform rabbinical delegates also approved by a heavy margin a report of the CCAR chaplaincy committee which recommended maintenance of the mandatory military chaplaincy draft program. The committee, which is headed by Rabbi Bertram W. Korn, surprised many of the delegates by endorsing selective conscientious objection as a reason for exemption from the chaplaincy draft. Rabbi Korn is chairman of the Association of Jewish Chaplains, which has been sharply critical of the virtual ending of the mandatory draft program. Yeshiva University last January approved a one-year suspension of the mandatory draft for rabbinic students at its Rabbi Isaac Elchanon Theological Seminary, allowing them to volunteer. The Conservative Theological Seminary of America also ended participation in the mandatory draft for its rabbinic candidates, creating instead a special seminary program limited to students prepared to enter the military chaplaincy on graduation and requiring all other rabbinic candidates to serve two-year periods as civilian chaplains on graduation.

The Reform rabbis also approved an amendment, after more heated debate, which provides that a special committee, to be drawn from a broadly representative group of views on the issue, study for a year proposals for an alternate service plan in lieu of the military chaplaincy, such a civilian chaplaincy assignments for graduating Reform rabbinic students. The committee also will study the issue of church-state involvement in acceptance of funds from the military for the military chaplaincy program. The committee was instructed to report to the 80th CCAR convention in 1969 in Houston.

At a workshop session, Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, a leading Orthodox rabbi, warned the Reform rabbis that there was an urgent need for an accelerated program of dialogues, community exchanges between synagogues of all three faiths, and adult study programs in congregations for greater understanding among Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jews. If this is not done, he added, there could be action by elements in Orthodox Judaism determined to widen differences with non-Orthodox Jews, such as the possibility that some Orthodox rabbis would refuse to recognize any marriages with non-Orthodox partners.

The CCAR agreed, in a resolution approved today, to set up counseling services in the 675 Reform congregations for young men of draft age seeking exemption from military service as conscientious objectors. The rabbis also endorsed the positions taken by Dr. Benjamin Spock, the Rev. William Sloane Coffin Jr., and their co-defendants in the trial here in which they were convicted of conspiring to abet draft evasion. The rabbis expressed the hope that higher courts would reverse the convictions.

In another resolution, the rabbis urged the United States and the United Nations to act to ameliorate the “disabilities and persecution” being suffered by Jews in the Arab countries.

The CCAR charged the Johnson Administration with failing to de-escalate the Vietnam war and with pursuing a policy of redistributing bombing targets. The organization, an outspoken critic of the Government’s Vietnam policy, called for an immediate halt in bombing of North Vietnam and especially attacks upon civilian populations, saying the Paris peace talks cannot be effective until the bombing is completely stopped.