The Rabbinical Assembly of America, representing 500 Conservative rabbis, today closed its 56th annual convention here with the adoption of a resolution reaffirming its stand against the introduction of any religious instruction into the public schools. It emphasized its support of the principle of separation of church and state.
In another resolution, the convention urged immediate sale of defensive arms by the United States to Israel. It severely criticized the American Council for Judaism for “confusing the American public and government as to the sympathies of the overwhelming majority of Jews in this country toward Israel.” The resolution called attention to the repeated assertions by religious and lay leaders of the three branches of Judaism who have “demonstrated time and again that those who speak for the American Council for Judaism represent no significant part of American Jewish life.”
The statement emphasized that “Jews outside of Israel do not owe political loyalty to that state, but are spiritually involved with its security and progress and with its existence as a democratic ally of the United States. To deny this kinship is to belie the facts of Jewish existence as well as to tamper with a basic tenet of the Jewish faith.” Rabbi Aaron H. Blumenthal, of Mt. Vernon, N.Y., was elected president of the Assembly.
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