The Union of American Hebrew Congregations today concluded its five-day national convention here with a resolution calling on Reform Jews to extend the “utmost material and spiritual aid” to Israel.
A group of 30 Reform Jewish leaders from all sections of the country, headed by Dr. Maurice N. Eisendrath, president of the UAHC, will leave for Israel next week to see how the 600,000 Reform Jews in the United States can best help the Jewish State, it was announced at the closing session of the convention. The delegation will spend three weeks in Israel.
Another resolution overwhelmingly adopted by the 3,000 delegates denounced “irresponsible attacks on our public school system which exaggerate the small number of subversive teachers out of all proportion to the true facts.” The resolution added; “Investigations should be concluded in a spirit of fair play and solely as a search for the truth.”
Still another resolution urged the United States Congress to ratify the United Nations Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide. Noting that a sub-committee of the U. S. Senate has approved the measure and that it has been approved by “41 national parliaments which represent a total population of one billion human beings,” the conference called for its acceptance as representing the “highest ideals of prophetic religion and human brotherhood.”
A guarantee of the clergyman’s right to express his ideas from the pulpit without penalty was contained in another resolution passed by the delegates. The statement declared that rabbis have the right “to interpret the words of the Scripture in the light of contemporary problems” and that the exercise of this right must be zealously safeguarded. In turn, the resolution added, “congregants have the right to disagree with the utterances made from the pulpit and to express their dissent in congregational committees, temple gatherings and membership meetings.”
The delegates voted to hold the next biennial of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which embraces 465 Reform Jewish temples in every section of the country, in Los Angeles February 13-17, 1955. Dr. Samuel S. Hollender, of Chicago, was re-elected chairman of the Board of the UAHC. He will continue also as general chairman of the $2,265,000 Combined Campaign, which raises funds for the national institutions of Reform Judaism.
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