Assurances that all religious issues in Israel can be solved through open-minded, intelligent discussion between lay and rabbinical leaders, were brought home today by two American rabbis who have just returned from a mission to Israel on behalf of the Rabbinical Council of America. The Council has a membership of more than 500 American trained rabbis serving orthodox Jewish communities all over the United States.
In a joint report delivered to nearly 100 members of the Council on their return from Israel, Rabbi Theodore L. Adams and Rabbi Zev Segal, declared that they had “found readiness and willingness to discuss the issue of national service for women, and all other religious questions in an open-minded, intelligent and sincere manner.”
“We left Israel, ” the rabbis said, “with the impression that if this spirit of good will continues there and is paralleled by a similar spirit in America, all issues will be satisfactorily solved. We were greatly impressed by the great desire of the religious and spiritual community in Israel to establish a spiritual bridge with American Jewry as well as with Jewry everywhere. “
Rabbi Adams and Rabbi Segal said they were impressed with the facilities for Jewish observance in the Israel Army. “The care for observance of Kashruth and the Sabbath was something that filled us with a deep sense of gratitude and a realization that the positive religious values in Israel were many and strong, ” they said. “We were similarly impressed by the schools which we visited, both under government and private auspices and with the remarkable work being done toward the fostering of scholarship in Israel through many of the great yeshivot. “
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
