Rabbi Simcha Elberg, chairman of the administrative committee of the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada, denounced a recent proposal by Rabbi Alexander Schindler, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, that Reform Judaism actively recruit converts to the Jewish faith among “the un-churched,” particularly among non-Jewish spouses in mixed marriages.
Elberg said, “Surely we Jews don’t want non-Jews proselytizing us and by the same token Jews should not seek out non-Jewish converts. All this talk about ‘saving searching souls’ sounds suspiciously like all the other cults which are popping up faster than the sane world can identify them.”
Continuing, Elberg stated: “Certainly we do not quibble regarding the obvious threats which modern-day cults pose to Judaism. However, there is no logic in forming a cult to combat cultism, and this seems to be the Reform movement’s best alternative. If Rabbi Schindler is sincere in his expressed desire to turn the tide of intermarriage then let him turn his flock toward Torah and halacha rather than turn them in the direction of mass conversions.”
Noting that Schindler conceded that numbers of Reform Jews marry non-Jews, Elberg suggested “that before the Reform movement launches a campaign to hustle non-Jewish souls that Rabbi Schindler and his cronies should search their own movement’s spiritual poverty.”
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.
