A Spiritual Task Force to provide rabbinic leadership to outlying Jewish communities throughout the United States and Canada has been established by the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, it was announced here today.
The new group will be composed of spiritual leaders with many years of experience in congregations in the larger cities who have volunteered to serve for four weeks each year in smaller communities in all parts of the country which cannot afford rabbis of their own. The Rabbinical Council of America and other Orthodox rabbinic groups had indicated their support for the project. An initial group of 25 spiritual leaders had already volunteered to serve in the program.
“The new Spiritual Task Force will become the vanguard of a continuing effort to spread the traditions and concepts of Judaism and will ultimately reach the remote Jewish communities throughout the country, ” Joseph Karasick, national president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, said. These communities, Mr. Karasick declared, “are in desperate need of religious leadership to enable them to survive and preserve their identity as Jewish entities.”
The spiritual leaders participating in the program, Mr. Karasick said, “will strengthen Jewish life in the smaller Jewish communities, some of which are in danger of disappearing altogether unless immediate steps are taken to save them. In addition, it will also prove stimulating to the rabbis to undertake this sacred mission and will also provide them with new insights into the problems and needs of the American Jewish community.”
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