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At Lone Pine Road In Crosswinds Mall - West Bloomfield, MI • 855-3214 Call For Appointment — 7 Days A Week — (810)851-6966 On The Boardwalk New York (JTA) — In a move highlighting the tension over re- ligious issues in umbrella Jewish organizations, Orthodox Zionist groups have "suspended" their membership in the American Zionist Movement to protest the passage of a resolution favoring religious pluralism in Israel. The groups — Arnit Women, Emunah Women and the Reli- gious Zionists of America — an- nounced their move in a Jan. 12 letter to AZM President Seymour Reich. "It is with a heavy heart that we are constrained to inform you that we are suspending our mem- bership in the American Zionist Movement immediately," the let- ter said. It added: "Unless this perni- cious resolution is withdrawn in short order, we will have no al- ternative other than to formally withdraw from membership." The letter was sent following AZM's annual convention, which took place Jan. 8-10 in Fort Laud- erdale, Fla. The controversial resolution "calls upon the government and Knesset of Israel to extend full freedom of religion to all Jews in Israel and equal treatment to all movements and ideologies re- flected in the American Zionist Movement." It was introduced at the reso- lutions sessions by the Associa- tion of Reform Zionists of America and Mercaz, the Con- servative movement's Zionist arm. Norman Schwartz, a former vice president of AZM, who chaired the session, said the vote to pass the resolution "was not close," although he did not reveal the exact count. In their letter to Mr. Reich, the Orthodox groups reflected on what passage of the resolution meant for the Zionist movement in the United States. "Separate and apart from the obvious fact that it is not the role of the American Jewish commu- nity to dictate religious standards or practices to the sovereign gov- ernment of the State of Israel, what is much more critical to us is that the adoption of the reso- lution strikes a body blow to the continued viability of the AZM as a united coordinating body," they wrote. Mr. Reich, who has been pres- ident of AZM since its founding in 1993, was disappointed by the departure of the Orthodox groups but hopeful that their decision was not permanent. "I would hope that they would reconsider and we could find a way to accommodate their needs," said Mr. Reich, who was re-elected to another two-year term at the convention. Mr. Reich emphasized, how- ever, that AZM will still "be able to function" even without the Or- thodox groups, since they did not represent a majority of delegates to the umbrella organization. Hadassah-Women's Zionist Organization of America has the largest delegation, followed by ARZA and Mercaz. But the withdrawal of the Or- thodox groups comes on the heels of two other defections from AZM. This leaves 10 groups as mem- bers in good standing, down from an original 16. Last year, the American arm of the right-wing Tsomet party and the Zionist Organization of America announced their own suspensions from AZM to protest the umbrella group's strong sup- port for the policies of Israel's dovish Labor government. In addition, Likud USA had been suspended from AZM for failure to pay dues. These moves had left the Or- thodox groups alone in AZM in representing a constituency gen- erally opposed to the peace process. The departure of the Orthodox groups from AZM reflected ten- sions between Orthodox and non- Orthodox groups being played out in other American Jewish orga- nizations. Some say those kind of ten- sions led to the demise late last year of the Synagogue Council of America, a 68-year-old umbrella organization for Orthodox, Con- servative and Reform rabbinical groups. The issue of religious plural- ism in Israel has also been an on- going source of debate within the National Jewish Community Re- lations Advisory Council, which holds its annual plenum next month. Before last year's plenum, the Reform movement made clear its intention of introducing a reso- lution similar to the one that passed at AZM. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America threat- ened to pull out of NJCRAC if the resolution was even raised at the plenum. The Reform movement backed off, but both sides agreed to par- ticipate in a committee to study the issue. According to Larry Rubin, executive vice chairman of NJCRAC, that committee will announce at next month's plenum that the Reform and Or- thodox groups had agreed to par-