(CA R Gittelsohn, Polish Attack 'Servility'
(Continued from. Page 1)
"must yet realize its full poten-
tial" and "measure up to the
rapidly escalating demands
which history imposes on us."
The Presidents Conference's
"greatest shortcoming," they
said, is that "it has not succeed-
ed in motivating American Jewry
in a manner comparable to the
American Jewish Conference
which in September 1943 suc-
ceeded in harnessing the great-
est energies and talents of our
people."
Rather, they said, the Presi-
dents Conference "has not yet
tapped the intellectual and moral
apathetic Jewish masses." In a
phrase, the rabbis wrote, "It has
not achieved the influence it
deserves to exercise."
The solution, they said, is for the
Presidents Conference to "under-
take a program aimed at rein-
forcing its work and stimulating
the involvement of communities
and qualified individuals in its
activities"; to "achieve an equili-
brium between responding to offi-
cial voices from Israel and making
the deepest soundings of Jewish
opinion in America" and to
"achieve equilibrium between mak-
ing unilateral policy and encour-
aging participatory democracy in
Jewish life."
Rabbis Gittelsohn and Polish
recommended that the convention
approve CCAR affiliation with the
World Jewish Congress, "whose
constitution guarantees the auto-
nomy of all of its respective mem-
ber organizations."
The joint message by the CCAR
president and vice president also
dealt with the Middle East, declar-
ing that "Israel stands on a pre-
cipice, driven there by the intran-
sigence of Arab enemies, the enig-
matic mischievousness of the So-
viet Union and the unpredictable
policies of the American govern-
ment which is committed not to the
preservation of Israel but to the
protection of its own global in-
terests."
The Reform leaders stated
("Israel's) peril is our peril,"
but the writers pointed out that
Israel herself "does very little
not only to reach Jewish youth
and college students but to en-
courage a climate of openness
on the moral "issues confronting
the state of Israel." They warn-
ed that "if Jewish youth cannot
encounter dissent in a free en-
vironment made possible by Is-
rael, they will seek it out under
the auspices of Israel's avowed
enemies."
The CCAR leaders also levied a
charge at the American Jewish
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community, "reinforced by its Is-
rael-oriented establishments," as
the greatest culprit in suppressing
dissent." That community "has
amply de m on str a ted its impas-
sioned concern for Israel," they
wrote, "but this concern rarely
rises above the adulation of Is-
rael's power."
The two rabbis declared "mis-
guided dependence upon that alone,
essential as it is to Israel's sur-
vival, can result in a Jewry which
is dangerously self decieved, ar-
rogant, desensitized and ultimately
a danger to Israel itself. When
Zionist bodies openly and officially
embrace America's most reaction-
ary politicians who would betray
Israel overnight if it suited their
purposes, and when organized
American Jewry does not demur,
there is peril to all of us and
to our spirit."
The rabbis concluded: "Ameri-
can Jewry must come of age. It
must be no less zealous in fight-
ing for the survival of its soul than
is the Jewry of Israel."
Rabbis Gittelsohn and Polish told
the opening session of the 82nd
annual meeting of the CCAR
at the Chase-Park Plaza Hotel that
the time has come for laymen to
end "unwarranted assault and
denigration within our syna-
gogues" as they issued a call for
remedial action.
Both rabbis placed equal blame
upon rabbis and lay leaders. Ap-
plying the same truth to the rabbi-
congregation situation, "When a
marriage goes sour," Rabbi Gittel-
sohn said, "very seldom can the
entire blame be assigned to one
partner." Rabbis are known, he
said, to have been "arrogant, abu-
sive and unforgiveably contemp-
tuous toward their congregants,
and some act as if congregations
exist chiefly for the gratification
and fulfillment of their egos."
Both rabbis attacked lay lead-
ers for fostering what they said
was becoming a ii,tional scandal
that, if unchecked, could corrode
.not only the rabbinate but congre-
gations as well. The harassment
and tyrannization of rabbis at the
hands of lay leaders who have
jeopardized, and sometimes shat-
tered, their tenures and threaten-
ed, and sometimes destroyed, the
careers of their rabbis, will drive
able men out of the rabbinate and
validate the cynicism of their
critics, he added.
"Too often, efforts are made to
diminish the moral and Jewish
capability of rabbis; too many
board 4members and presidents see
their rabbis as hired hands to be
dealt with impersonally and con-
temptuously. In such circum-
stances, a rabbi can become emo-
tionally and intellectually stunted,
self-deprecating and timid," Rabbi
Polish noted.
He felt, "If this is what Ameri-
can Jewry wants, this , is what it
will get—craven, mediocre, servile
persons who will dutifully preside
at the burial services of American
Jewry."
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Congressmen Take Part in Bible Week Committee
The CCAR agreed in principle
NEW YORK---Democratic Semi- Catholic, Jewish,- Greek Orthodox
tor John 0. Pastore of Rhode and Protestant laymen to promote
Island and Republican Representa- increased study of the Bible.
tive John H. Buchanan Jr. of Ala-
bama, will co-chair the Congres-
sional Committee for National Bible
IF YOU TURN THE
Week, Nov. 21-28, it was announced
by Justice J. Goldberg, national
UPSIDE DOWN YOU WON'T
chairman.
FIND A FINER WINE THAN
Sen. Pastore is a Roman Catho-
lic ; Congressman Buchanan is an
ordained minister.
National Bible Week is sponsored
Milan Wineries, Detroit, Mich.
by the Laymen's National Bible
Wednesday hat it was "shocked"
at the federal government's at-
tempt to ban publication of a
classified Pentagon report on the
Vietnam War and thus to "abro-
gate the basic principle of the
first amendment. jeopardizing
freedom of the press."
* V W
'
Referring to the secret study
published in part by the New York
Times and since then by other
newspapers, the Reform rabbis
agreed that the study was - part
of our nation's history" in that it Committee founded in 1940 by
detailed growing American in-
volvment in the "infamous war
in Vietnam." The American people,
said the rabbis, "have a right to
know what their government is
doing."
The added that "the only way
to end the war" — which they
called a useless, wasteful, bloody
conflict — "is to end it quickly."
They suggested a Dec. 31 dead-
line for an American pullout. The
CCAR, also agreed in principle to
bid President Nixon to establish
a special committee, to include
clergymen, that would consider
new guidelines for the classifica-
tion of government documents.
The convention, after consider-
able internal argument, tabled a
resolution endorsing bail and a
fair trial for Angela Davis, the
militant black Communist who
charges that her continued incar-
ceration on gun conspiracy charges
and complicity in murder is un-
lawful.
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Reconstructionists Join
Presidents' Conference
NEW YORK — The Jewish Re-
constructionist Foundation has be-
come the 25th national agency to
join the Conference of Presidents
of Mayor American Jewish Organ-
izations, it recently was announced.
Dr. William A. Wexler, chairman
of the Presidents Conference, said
he welcomed the Reconstructionist
body's affiliation.
6—Friclay, June 25, 1971
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