The Central Conference of American Rabbis, assembled here at its forty-third meeting, yesterday went on record against “an economic system which as late as June, 1932, permitted dividend payments in industry to remain twenty percent higher than in 1925 while factory payrolls have diminished to less than 50 percent of what they were at that time.”
This assertion was made in the report of the Committee on Social Justice presented by Rabbi Edward Israel of Baltimore as chairman. Rabbi Israel urged action rather than words in his report.
The report was adopted by the conference following a heated discussion in which a number of the delegates denounced a number of the declarations on Social Reform on the ground that they presented a Socialistic view.
Another declaration contained in the report as adopted opposes sales taxes “which makes the burden the same on rich and poor alike” but recommended “State income taxes, increased inheritance taxes, or if ultimately necessary, graduated levies on capital.” This the report holds is a “far more ethical means of meeting the program for care
of the unemployed.”
The report generally condemned the inability of capital to achieve a sense of social responsibility.
A declaration dealing specifically with prejudice against the employment of Jews was adopted with the recommendation that the Commission work with Social Commissions of other religious groups toward the alleviation of the Jewish employment situation.
The report of Dr. Jacob Marcus, calling upon the Central Conference to summon leading American Jewish national bodies to unite in a Committee to take action on Jewish problems, national and international and to summon a world conference for this purpose, was presented in its amended form yesterday afternoon and referred to the Committee on the President’s message, to make its report as early as possible.
Rabbi Morris Newfield, president of the Central Conference, attacked the missionary methods of church organizations, citing as the worst offenders so-called Hebrew-Christian missionaries who endeavor to lure, with offers of food, clothing and other gifts, poor Jewish children from their religion and the influence of their parents.
Rabbi Newfield recommended that seminaries establish graduate fellowships to enable unemployed rabbis to take charge of small congregations and to establish circuits in rural districts.
Among those who expressed opposition to parts of the report are: Rabbi Jonah B. Wise of New York, son of Rabbi Isaac M. Wise, founder of the conference; Rabbi Solomon Foster of Newark; Rabbi Joseph B. Kornfeld of Toledo, and Rabbi David Philipson of Cincinnati.
Rabbi James G. Heller of Cincinnati defended the report. Dr. Heller stated that the report did not represent socialism, but rather a plea for wider social control in the economic field.
The report was voted on in two sections, the first part being adopted by a vote of 37 to 23 and the second by a vote of 59 to 16.
Rabbis Philipson and Wise asked to be recorded as voting against parts of it.
Rabbi Israel’s report said in part: “We heartily endorse such changes as would bring about curbing of the greed which the present profit system makes inevitable. We feel, also, that there must be no abuse by police powers against, or violation of civil rights of those who want to express themselves within the traditional limits of American freedom of speech in protest against existing conditions.
“We recommend not only such palliatives as compulsory unemployment insurance, but also the further reaching demands of the more adequate distribution of the profits of industry.”
A paragraph asserting that President Hoover had asked religious groups to raise private charity funds and them had expressed impatience at the demands of these groups for social reform was deleted on the ground that it might be construed as criticism of the president.
Further discussion on the plan for communal organization proposed by Judge Horace Stern of Philadelphia was held with the participation of Dr. Sydney E. Goldstein of the Free Synagogue, New York; Rabbi Max Reichler of Brooklyn; Professor Samuel Cohon of Hebrew Union College; Rabbi Felix Levy of Chicago; Rabbi George Fox, Chicago; Rabbi Moses Jacobson, Ashville, and Dr. I. M. Rubinow, Cincinnati, secretary of the B’nai Brith.
Rabbi Goldstein, who stated that the Free Synagogue attempts to enroll all its members in social work, suggested that the importance of social work demands a larger place in the Rabbinical curriculum for social sciences. “Social work awakens members and develops social sympathy and consciousness. Social service functions to bring synagogue and community into contact. We must recognize our next function to religionize our social work and to demechanize it.”
Dr. Rubinow, the only layman recognized on the floor, objected to the characterization of social work as mechanized.
Rabbi Reichler objected to the condition set in the Stern plan that synagogue members belong to Federations
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.
