The Synagogue Council of America, which represents Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism, today issued a proclamation urging the Jews in this country to attend their synagogues on Shavuoth, the two-day holiday honoring the giving of the Ten Commandments at Mt. Sinai. Shavuoth will begin at sundown tomorrow.
“Sinai,” the proclamation says, “marked the all-important half-way station between the slavery and degradation of Egypt and the freedom of the Land of Promise. There at the foot of the mountain, the newly liberated slave people received the moral law which would enable them to live together with their fellow men in peace and concord and would make of them fit keepers of the flame of justice and freedom. Without the morality of Sinai there could not have been the freedom of the Land of Promise.
“The Synagogue Council of America therefore urges American Jews to attend their synagogues and to participate in the significant services of this holy day, thus reaffirming the ideals of justice and righteousness which were proclaimed at Sinai.
“Realizing that the great imperishable message brought forth on this lowly mountain can yet lead the peoples from darkness into light, the Synagogue Council calls upon all who are concerned with the moral climate in which we live, to take heed of this message: that there can be no true freedom unless it is based on the moral law, no enduring peace without justice, and no real brotherhood without a sense of the sanctity of life.” the proclamation concludes.
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