Uojca Plans to Form Single Body to Serve Orthodox Jewry; Maps Aid for Elderly Jews

Plans for the establishment of a single body of clergy and payment to serve American orthodox Judaism and a program to help elderly Jews in the inner cities were announced here this weekend at the 72nd biennial convention of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. The more than 2,000 delegates and guests attending the five-day conclave which ended today also adopted resolutions calling for the expansion of ongoing programs on behalf of Soviet Jewry, increased government aid to non-public schools, cultivation of an ongoing dialogue with Jewish youth, condemned violent tactics as counter-productive to the intended goal of improving the situation of Soviet Jews, and to protect the employment rights of Sabbath-observing orthodox Jews. Rabbi Joseph Karasick of New York, President of the Union, told the convention that “American Orthodox Judaism should be represented by an articulate, unified and united voice.” He said that he expected in the near future to call a national conference of Orthodox Rabbis and lay leaders to discuss his proposal for the establishment of a single Orthodox agency that would end “duplication, rivalry and wasteful fragmentation.” He said that “precious manpower” was being wasted because of “the lack of coordination and efficiency.”

Harold M. Jacobs, Chairman of the Union, announced the appointment of a special commission to develop a program designed to help the “thousands of elderly and poverty-stricken Jews abandoned unwittingly by the organized Jewish community to the slums of our major cities.” He noted that up until this time “no national Jewish organizations have taken up their problem.” Appointed to the commission were Dr. Bernard Lander, a sociology professor at Hunter College; Harold H. Boxer, Chairman of the UOJCA Youth Commission, and Nathan K. Gross, Chairman of the UOJCA Joint Commission for Kosher Certification. At a special session devoted to the plight of Soviet Jewry, delegates resolved to “convince all segments of the world community that the Soviet Jewry cause is one of the great humanitarian issues of our day.” Constituent congregations and their members were urged, “to continue and expand, in cooperation with the American Jewish Conference on Soviet Jewry, ongoing programs designed to educate the world to the hardships facing our brethren in the Soviet Union.” The Soviet government was called on to “permit in practice to Soviet Jews the freedom of religion assured the Soviet Constitution of 1936 and the Human Rights Covenant to which the USSR has subscribed.”

Delegates also urged the repeal of constitutional provisions “which unfairly restrict aid for the secular programs of religious schools,” and noted that it was “both constitutional and equitable for government to share the cost of their secular programs.” The resolution noted that Orthodox Jewish day schools, “like other institutions of learning, are experiencing huge deficits and facing a financial crisis.” Another resolution issued by the delegates declared that the UOJCA would commit itself to “be in the vanguard of an ongoing effort to secure legislation and regulations that would accord to Orthodox Jews the right of public and private employment free from discrimination.” Dr. Walter S. Wurzburger, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Yeshiva University, urged delegates to cultivate an “ongoing dialogue with our youth” as a means of wresting them out of the hands of the New Left.

He warned that “blind apologetics for the status quo, all-out defense of the ‘Establishment’ and hysterical flag-waving–be it of the American or Israeli variety– will only play into the hands of the New Left which flourishes on the exploitation of disenchantment with our society.” Dr. Wurzburger expressed the view that “the recent involvement of young people in the decision-making apparatus of many Jewish communal agencies,” including a number of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, “was a most significant step forward.” He also deplored the “present turmoil” on American college campuses. Rabbi Bernard L. Berzon, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, the rabbinic arm of the Union, urged the Orthodox community to “marshal all its resources” in a campaign to retain and increase the loyalties of college students to their Jewish heritage. He proposed that every Orthodox congregation near a college or a university set up a student center to welcome students with a “home away from home.” Rabbi Karasick was re-elected to a third term as president of the UOJCA.