Charging that “the Conservative movement has recently embarked upon new violations in the ritual and upon various abrogations of sacred observances,” the National Council of Young Israel, representing 20,000 members, today issued a statement strongly criticizing the Conservative movement as doing “irreparable harm to the preparation of Jewish law.”
The statement specifically condemns “the abrogation of the Sabbath Laws perpetrated by Conservative leaders issuing permission to travel by car or other conveyances to the synagogue on the Sabbath or other Jewish holy days, and the changes recently introduced by the leaders of Conservative Judaism in the sacred rites and laws governing marriage and divorce.”
Declaring that “the spiritual leaders of the Conservative movement cannot be recognized by any Orthodox Jew as Rabbis,” the statement called upon Orthodox Jews not to attend Conservative synagogues for worship or religious ceremonies.
The National Council of Young Israel also called upon all Yeshivoth and other religious institutions “to desist from inviting the spiritual leaders of the Conservative movement as guest speakers of their functions because such invitations tend to make them appear before the eyes of the Jewish public as the spokesman of Torah which they are not.”
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.
