Convention of Reform Jewry Salutes Israel; Hits Council for Judaism

The Union of American Hebrew Congregations concluded its 44th convention here today with the adoption of resolutions saluting Israel, assailing the activities of the American Council for Judaism, appealing to President Eisenhower to admit Jewish refugees from Egypt to the United States, and urging the Congress to enact speedily President Eisenhower’s recommendations on civil rights.

The 3,000 delegates at the convention also adopted a two-year program for the consolidation of American Reform Judaism’s recent dynamic gains. The program also brought a mandate for the UAHC not only to further the knowledge of Reform Judaism to its own constituency but to Jewry in general, and particularly to the unaffiliated. Special emphasis was placed by the delegates on the final phrase of this mandate which the newly-elected officers were urged to give "the highest priority."

In addition to this phase of the over-all program, the resolution called for an expanded program of religious education, the "raising of capital sums" for a substantial increase in the number of religious youth camps, the creation of an additional 350 social action committees to augment the 200 already in existence in congregations to foster "great social awareness," the establishment of a missionary-type religious caravans composed of rabbis and lay leaders to bring the message of Judaism into every "city, town and village on the American continent," and the expansion of current informational projects on television and radio "to create a better understanding of Judaism in general and Reform Judaism in particular."

SAYS COUNCIL FOR JUDAISM FURNISHES MATERIAL FOR ANTI-SEMITES

In its resolution attacking the American Council for Judaism, the convention said that the Council has "wantonly impugned the national loyalties" of all those American Jews "who disagree with it" and "has furnished material for professional anti-Semites." The denunciation of the anti-Zionist group, which claims to represent "classical Reform Judaism," included a charge that in a number of American Jewish communities representatives of the group "have employed morally reprehensible methods to undermine existing congregations and to introduce division and discord."

Asserting that the anti-Zionist Council for Judaism "misrepresents historical Judaism as well as what it calls classical Reform Judaism," the delegates said there is no antithesis between Judaism as a religion and Jews as a people." They emphasized that the "view of Judaism held by the American Council for Judaism is at variance with the view of the overwhelming majority of Reform Jews in the United States and Canada."

The delegates also charged that the Council for Judaism has "repeatedly slandered" the UAHC, misrepresenting the latter’s positions and cast aspersions on the American loyalty of our adherents." Also that the anti-Zionist group "has played directly into the hands of Arab propagandists."

REAFFIRMS SOLIDARITY WITH "BELEAGUERED" JEWS IN ALL COUNTRIES

In their resolution on Israel, the delegates salute the people of Israel "for their heroic sense of freedom and right and for standing fast against the threat of aggression by Arab nations and the Soviet Union. We affirm in the strongest possible terms our sense of solidarity with our beleaguered fellow Jews wherever they may dwell," the resolution says.

Rejecting as "unjust the effort of any attempt to appease the strong and penalize the weak," the resolution said: "We reiterate our resolve to rebuild the waste places of Israel by our unstinting support of the United Jewish Appeal, by purchase of bonds or Israel and by furtherance of every undertaking for Zinn’s development.

"We hold it to be our sacred and solemn obligation to labor together with our sister Jewish organizations and our brother Jews in America and throughout the world for the security and life of Israel and of the whole of Jewry," the resolution continued. "We commend the president of the Union, Dr. Maurice N. Eisendrath, for his selfless, consecrated efforts to seek the fulfillment of these aims by cooperation with the presidents of the great American Jewish organizations and other leaders in Jewish and general life."

The resolution appealing to President Eisenhower to admit Jewish refugees from Egypt expresses "deep disappointment" with the U.S. failure to offer asylum to the Jewish victims of the Nasser regime. "This indifference to the tragic plight of the innocent victims of Nasser’s inhumanity stands in sharp contrast to the prompt and generous succor offered, with the warm support of the American people, to those who fled from Communist tyranny in Hungary," the resolution says. "There is no justification in law or in morality for such a double standard."

"The U.S. failure to aid Egyptian expellees is unworthy of the great American tradition of asylum," the resolution continued. "The United States should do no less to ameliorate human tragedy than have other free nations, notably Canada, which has sent a mission to Cairo to facilitate family reunions on Canadian soil for the victims of Egyptian terror."