U.A.H.C. Lays out 15-year Program to Gain Members, Expand Services

A comprehensive program designed to strengthen every phase of the Reform branch of Judaism in this country and Canada in the next 15 years including an immediate drive to enroll 500,000 new congregants and to add 500 new synagogues was adopted today by the Board of Trustees of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

The action was taken by the trustees of the Union at a four-day meeting held in celebration of the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Reform Jewish movement in this country. The Union is the coordinating body of 560 Reform congregations in the United States and Canada with a membership of more than 1,000,000 men, women and children.

The principal objectives of the projected program to strengthen Reform Judaism were outlined by Solomon B. Elsner, chairman of the board. They follow:

1. Winning of 500,000 new adherents to Reform synagogues among the 2,500,000 unaffiliated Jews in this country; 2. Establishment of new houses of worship in housing developments and other low income areas; 3. Full time regional service centers in the existing 17 area offices of the UAHC to include directors for youth and education; 4. Creation of new programs for various age levels now affiliated with the synagogue–for nursery school, pre-teen and senior members; 5. Correspondence courses for youth and adults to reach Jewish families in isolated communities.

Also, 6. Courses on Judaism with outstanding scholars on special TV educational hook-ups for the religious school; 7. Extensive adult and parent education courses in the synagogues; 8. Overseas aid plan for liberal congregations throughout the world; 9. Full time camps for youth and adults in all regions of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations; 10. Mobile Houses of Living Judaism in buses with rabbis with current information on Judaism to reach Jewish families in sparsely settled communities throughout the Western hemisphere.