UAHC Joins Wjc; Eisendrath Scores Nixon Reaction to Scranton Commission Report

The Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the congregational body of Reform Judaism in this country, became a constituent of the World Jewish Congress yesterday in an action voted by its National Board of Trustees. The action was taken on the recommendation of Rabbi Maurice B. Eisendrath, president of the UAHC, in his semi-annual report. The invitation for the UAHC to join the WJC through membership in its American section was extended by Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Jewish Congress. Rabbi Eisendrath’s report to the board of trustees sharply criticized President Nixon for rejecting the appeal of the Scranton Commission on Campus Unrest that he assume the moral leadership needed to ease the tensions of what the commission termed “a nation on the edge of chaos.” He noted that the UAHC was participating “in every struggle on the American scene for the achievement of greater unity, cooperation and harmony” among Jewish groups in this country and observed that “today it is urgent to increase cooperation and joint collaboration” on the world scene as well. Rabbi Eisendrath cited “the situation in the Middle East, the ordeal of Soviet Jewry and the fragile position of much of Latin American Jewry” as areas demanding attention. He also urged that “we enlarge and redouble our work with young people,” whom he said are made “scapegoats and political targets” by some elements of American society. “Millions of young people, troubled and disenchanted, are searching for meaning and purpose and a better society in a gentler world,” the religious leader said, “and they deserve our support and our guidance.”