‘rosh Chodesh’ Plan Urged on Knesset to Ease Sabbath Problem

Thirteen American Jewish leaders called today for the enactment by the Knesset of a Labor Law Amendment encompassing the “Rosh Chodesh” Plan in order to avoid further friction over Sabbath-observance in Israel. In a cable to Prime Minister Golda Meir, the group urged her to use her influence to secure passage of the amendment, formally introduced into the Knesset by M.K. Zevulun Hammer of the National Religious Party. The Plan was devised by Dr, Norman Lamm, professor of Jewish philosophy at Yeshiva University and rabbi of The Jewish Center in New York City, in response to what the Jewish leaders termed the bickering and animosity surrounding Sabbath-observance in Israel. Religious Jews, the cable noted, feel offended when national sporting contests and other public events take place on Saturdays, and the non-observant feel constrained by Sabbath legislation which limits their activity on the one free day of the week. The Lamm Plan calls for declaring Rosh Chodesh (the first day of each Hebrew month) as an official day of rest. The New Moon was observed in ancient Israel as a day of public festivity but travel and other Sabbath restrictions do not apply to it. Because Rosh Chodesh sometimes falls on Saturday, and Rosh Hashanah is always the New Moon, there are about nine days per year that would then be available for all national athletic, cultural, and other activities, satisfying all segments of Israeli society.

The Labor Alignment in the Israeli Knesset has so far opposed the amendment on the grounds of the additional strain it would cause to the economy, the Jewish leaders noted. Sponsors of the Plan, who consider it a way-station to the eventual five-day week, have proposed various ways of compensating for the extra holidays. Whatever extra economic burden it would cause beyond this, they argue, costs the State less than the acrimony and strife in the wake of the periodic outbreaks over Sabbath violations. Senders of the cable to Mrs. Meir who signed as individuals, included leaders from all factions of American Jewry, including Prof. Eugene Borowitz of Hebrew Union College and Rabbi Arthur Lellyveld, president of the American Jewish Congress (Reform); Rabbi Wolf Kellman, executive vice-president of the Rabbinical Assembly and Prof. Seymour Siegel of the Jewish Theological Seminary (Conservative); Dr. Emanuel Rackman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency, Rabbi Hershel Schacter, chairman of the American Conference on Soviet Jewry, Rabbi Israel Miller, president of the American Zionist Federation, and Prof. Norman Lamm (Orthodox); Robert H. Arnow, president of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Stephen Stulman, joint deputy chairman of the board of the Weitzman Institute; and philanthropists Jakob Michael and Max Stern. Separate messages urging passage of the Amendment have been sent by the Union of Orthodox Congregations of America, the Rabbinical Council of America. Similar communications have arrived from South Africa and elsewhere, “The Rosh Chodesh proposal is a creative solution,” the cable read in part, and “will contribute to greater understanding and less friction among Jews of different persuasions, and make aliyah easier for American Jews accustomed to a five-day week.”