U.S. Jews Cannot Lean on Israel for Religious Guidance, Rabbinical Mission Reports

American Jews must continue to depend on their own resources for their religious life, and cannot lean for guidance on religious institutions in Israel, says a report to 460 members of the Rabbinical Assembly of America submitted today by the organization’s four-member mission to Israel which completed its studies last fall.

The report says that “religion in Israel is opposed by powerful secularist forces that are today dominant in the nation’s culture and life.” In the present Israel culture, the mission reported, forms of traditional Judaism are often retained but only after they have been reinterpreted into humanistic terms, while the values of nationalism tend to displace those of religion.

The members of the mission–who visited every settlement in Israel from Dan to Beersheba last summer and conferred with leaders in government, religion and education thrcughout the country–were led by Rabbi Ben Zion Bokser of New York. Other members were Rabbis Maxwell Farber, Philadelphia; Rabbi Ralph Simon, Chicago; and Rabbi Sanders Tofield, Jacksonville, Fla. The mission report says that the religious spokesmen in Israel tend to seek political power as a means of bolstering religion’s cause in the new state.

Through political action, the report states, they have won important concessions for religion, such as the fact that civil marriage has been declared illegal and only a religious marriage is recognized as valid. The state contributes onethird of the budget of local religious communities. A separate religious school system exists for parents who desire that type of education for their children. Religious units have been established in the armed forces of the country. Religious courts have sole jurisdiction to deal with such matters as divorce and inheritance. The mission’s report warned, however, that dependence on political organization may have detrimental consequences for the cause of religion in Israel.

The report saw the cause of religion strengthenod as a result of the greater immigration trend into Israel. Most of the many thousands of new immigrants coming from Oriental countries are deeply religious people, the report stated. Special tribute was paid to the Hapoel Hamizarchi, religious labor movement, for contributing much to the reinstatemont of religion in Israel’s culture.

The report also noticed the indications of revolt against secularism among some of the nation’s younger intellectuals. The creation of the state, by fulfilling the ideal of Zionism, has left a certain void in Israel culture which will stimulate new concern for the more universal values of Jewish religion, the report said.