A special meeting of the board of directors of the UOJCA on March 14 decisively upheld a previous decision of the board on Feb. 7 to suspend the organization’s participation in the Synagogue Council of America. The new meeting was called at the request of some board members because of their feeling that the momentous nature of the issue required a special meeting to specifically consider this question. The March 14 meeting was attended by a majority of the 150-member board with significant out of town representation.
The decision of the Feb. 7 board meeting to suspend UOJCA participation in the Synagogue Council developed from its consideration of an item on the agenda namely that of framing an Orthodox response to the vigorous campaign against amending the Law of Return in Israel, being waged by the American Reform and Conservative groups. The Feb. 7 resolution “suspended the participation of the UOJCA in the Synagogue Council of America forthwith, in order to underscore the fact that the Torah community has never granted religious legitimacy to deviationist movements.”
The board further resolved to direct president Harold M. Jacobs to appoint a Study Committee to review the Union’s membership status in the SCA and to report to the plenary session of the UOJCA national convention in Nov., in order to arrive at a final determination of the Union’s relationship with the Synagogue Council of America.
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