Protest of Youth Termed ‘religion at Its Finest’; Synagogue Building Costs Scored

The protest of youth “is what religion, at its finest, has always been about,” a leading American rabbi told delegates to a three-day Reform Jewish convention which ended here today. Speaking at the banquet of the biennial convention of the Mid-Atlantic Council of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, central congregational body of Reform Judaism in the United States and Canada, Rabbi Alexander M. Schindler, vice-president of the parent organization, declared that youth’s protest “is essentially an affirmation of faith” and that “our young people are profoundly religious, in the highest sense of that term.” Urging the adult community to “look beyond their unkempt hair, their extravagant dress and their outrageous manner of speech,” Rabbi Schindler said: “Of course they are rebels. And they rebel against religion, too, but only as it is narrowly, mistakenly conceived. They reject institutionalism with its swollen pride and its divisiveness.” But, he noted, they do not reject “the concept of human worth. They hold life sacred. They speak of man’s relationship to man–and they really feel it! They insist that life must yield its meaning, and they persist in the quest to discover that meaning. This my friends, is what religion, at its finest, has always been about.”

Reminding his listeners that Jewish tradition calls for involvement in matters of social concern. Rabbi Schindler warned that “we will lose our youth” if the synagogue fails to join the young in their condemnation of racial discrimination, poverty and the war in Vietnam, which “has torn apart the very fabric of our nation.” Rabbi Schindler urged that “the counsel of timidity” be rejected and he criticized those who “withdraw and close the door” in the face of controversy, or follow “the concept of protective mimicry.” In a report delivered at a plenary session, Rabbi Richard S. Sternberger. director of the Mid-Atlantic Council, deplored “staggering building ventures” in light of the ever-increasing mobility of society. Excessive expenditures for new synagogue structures, he said, “are paralyzing to so many good and essential programs of congregational life.” He recommended “joint ventures in building and usage of these buildings with, for example, churches.” He added that, “in addition to being more feasible and practical, it would provide more opportunities for valid and meaningful ecumenism than all of the programs I know.” He also urged that we “rethink our directions” in synagogue programming. “If we are to survive,” Rabbi Sternberger declared, “I believe that we must strive to eliminate so much of the wasteful duplication within our synagogues and seek more joint programming among our synagogues in metropolitan areas.”