Reform Rabbis Debate Whether Chaplains
Should Serve in Civilian or Military Capacity
I
HOUSTON, Tex. (JTA) — Ameri- ing Jewish-Catholic understanding
can. Reform rabbis debated this difficult if not impossible. Rabbi
week whether Jewish chaplains in Gilbert said the Pope consistently
the armed forces should serve in a has indicated be is more interest-
civilian or military capacity and ed in property than in people."
whether Christian-Jewish dialogues Rabbi Shaw polled 130 colleagues
should be limited or broadened in heading large congregations.
scope:
Between half and two-thirds of
The debate developed during the the rabbis giving written responses
second day of the 80th annual con- on the survey said they saw a
vention here of the Central Con- growing anti-Christian sentiment
ference of American Rabbis among Jews in this country be-
(COAR), the rabbinic body of Re- cause of the Christian silence at
fortn Judaism in America. The con- the time of the Six-Day War" and
vention had before it a proposal to because of Christian acceptance of
subStitute a civilian chaplaincy for Arab propaganda.
military chaplaincy.
They also saw more contacts
Under the proposal, rabbis who now than 10 years ago between
presently serve as officers in uni-
rabbis and the Christian communi-
foOn under military command ties they live in. especially in ex-
would be replaced by civilian plaining modern Israeli's existence
chaplains contracted by the arm- to Christian laity and clergy. They
ed-forces just as many other civ- felt Christian 1:12. men tend to blame
Israel for the Mid-East crisis and
ilian services are contracted.
The resolution stated that the Christian clergy go "even so far as
to
side with the Arabs" over the
changct•as essential because "the
fulfillment of the role of the clergy- Arab refuge problem.
Rabbi Olan called on Ameri-
man requires his independence,
ca's 5,500.000 Jews to render
and tends to be frustrated by his
"sacrificial support" of Israel's
being subject to military command
through the contribution of funds
..a clergyman, whose purpose is
and other activities even if it
to enhance life, wearing the uni-
means reducing their own living
form of a military establishment,
standards.
whose purpose is to deal death,
portrays an unseemly contradic-
He urged the organization to as-
sume leadership in establishing an
tion."
According to Rabbi Joseph B. American-Jewish conference to de-
Glaser of San Francisco, one of vise economic and other programs
eight rabbis who signed the to aid Israel in its struggle for
proposal, civilian chaplains would
be subject to military authority
only in times of obvious emergen-
cy or actual combat and would not
be subject to evaluation as a mili-
tary officer which, except of the
air force, Jainow the case.
In another area involving the
chaplaincy, the convention had be-
fore it a recommendation of the
CCAR's executive board to aban-
don the draft of rabbis for military
service and a report of a special
committee on chaplaincy chaired
by Robert I. Kahn, which rejected
the executive board's proposal and
urged continuance of the draft on
the grounds that voluntary sys-
tems do not work.
Friday, June 20, 1969-15
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
peaceful existence and to prevent
its "threatened extinction."
Rabbi Olan said that while the
existing organizational structure
functioned adequately for normal
times, a mobilization similar to the
one achieved at the time of the
Six-Day War was needed now.
He said, "The time has come for
American Jewry to arise with far
more than the token support it is
now bringing...The crisis is such
that only an aroused American
Jewish people, ready to lay their
substance before their brothers
threatened with extinction, can re-
deem this terrible hour of Israel's
lonely agony."
Rabbi Olan said he viewed with
"deep concern" the current peace
moves involving the Big Four
powers. He maintained that "the
conscience of the world, with very
few exceptions, is prepared to wit-
ness serenely this destruction of
Israel even as it did only three dec-
ades ago in the gas chambers of
Germany."
Arthur Goldberg, former Su-
preme Court justice, and U.S.
ambassador to the UN, told the
CCAR that "if law is not made
more than a policeman's night-
stick, American society will be de-
stroyed." Those societies "that
have treated law only as a sword
have fallen because people become
alienated from the law just as
many Americans are now," he said.
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Rabbi Levi A. Olan, CCAR
president, urged in his opening
address that a lower priority be
assigned to theological discus-
sions with Christian spiritual
leaders because of their "neu-
tral" if not "antagonistic" atti-
tude toward Israel. Rabbi Olan
said the interfaith dialogues
should be limited to a "common
attack against the social evils of
our day."
Many of his colleagues disagreed
and thought that interreligious dis-
cussions should be extended and in-
tensified. Rabbi Olan attributed
what he called the Christian
world's failure to support Israel
in its "struggle to survive" to
"church doctrine that Israel's suc-
cessful existence is a Christian
heresy." He accused church or-
ganizations, without naming them,
of uncritical acceptance of the
"Arab propaganda line."
At a meeting before Rabbi Olan's
address, the CCAR's executive
board adopted a statement reject-
ing any limitation on Christian-
Jewish dialogue as "artificial and
in the long run untenable."
In a paper titled "The Rabbi and
the Christian Community," Rabbi
Abraham D. Shaw of Baltimore
conceded that effective dialogues
had been undermined by "Chris-
tian silence" over Israel's survival
at the time of the Six-Day War.
He noted, however, that "a sig-
nificant number of Christian cler-
gymen responded in a pro-Israel
way." Rabbi Shaw said that "al-
though it may be true that many
of us are now inclined to approach
the whole area of interfaith rela-
tionships with a somewhat jaun-
diced eye...dare we permit this
to break off the dialogue?"
Rabbis Balfour Brickner and
Arthur Gilbert were both quoted in
the survey as criticizing Pope Paul
VI's. response to recent Middle
East events-
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