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U.S. Orthodox Groups Form Body ‘to Save Immigrant Children in Israel’

August 30, 1961
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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Leaders of Orthodox rabbinical and lay organizations in the United States today formed a united committee “to save immigrant children in Israel from the mass uprooting of their faith by the Youth Aliyah.” The new United Orthodox Committee consists of Agudath Harabonim, Agudath Admorim, Igud Harabonim, Agudath Israel of America, Mizrachi-Hapoel Hamizrachi, Poale Agudath Israel, National Council of Young Israel, and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations.

The conference, which was attended by the heads of these Orthodox groups, adopted a resolution “expressing shock at the appalling facts of anti-religious coercion practiced against religious immigrant-children by the Youth Aliyah.” It also resolved to “use all necessary means to immediately halt the transfer of religious immigrant-children to non-religious institutions, and to appoint religious leaders in the transit camps in the Diaspora and in Israel, with representatives of the rabbinate and yeshivoth added to the classification commissions which decide the final placement of each child.”

The resolution concluded with the demand that “all religious immigrant children already placed in non-religious institutions be immediately returned to the religious authorities to insure their placement in an environment where they can continue the faith of their parents.”

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