Rabbi Bernard J. Bamberger, president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, declared here tonight that “the general line” taken by the current, country-wide observance of the centennial of the Civil War “seems nothing less than alarming.”
Dr. Bamberger made the statement during his presidential address at the opening session of the CCAR’s 72nd annual convention here. More than 500 Reform rabbis from all over the United States and Canada are attending the five-day convention of the conference, which includes among its members 800 rabbis representing congregations with more than 1,000,000 worshipers.
The Civil War observance, Rabbi Bamberger said, is “a kind of pageant, glorifying a romantic episode in so carefully balanced a way that no one’s sensibilities shall be ruffled. The war was in vain, the celebration is a blasphemy and disgrace, if a century later, the Negro’s right to full equality may still be limited by prejudice enacted into law or perpetuated by custom.”
Dr. Bamberger, spiritual leader of Congregation Shaaray Tefilla, in New York, proposed that “there ought to be one central theme and objective of this centennial celebration–the elimination of all official, legalized racial discrimination before the observance ends in 1965.” He recommended that the convention adopt a resolution to this effect.
He also recommended that the convention reaffirm the CCAR’s “traditional principle that religious bodies, local and national, have the greatest obligation to speak up on moral issues in community and national life.”
The latter recommendation goes counter to objections raised by some Reform congregations which oppose the establishment of a Religious Action Center in Washington, under the auspices of Reform Judaism’s Commission on Social Action. The Commission is a joint body of the CCAR and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, plus the latter organization’s affiliates.
In his presidential address, Dr. Bamberger also charged that American leaders, both conservative and liberal, are trying to fight social and economic threats to freedom and attempting to oppose Communism’s “planned program of world conquest, with ideas that are 30 to 60 years old.” He told the convention:
“We have been disturbed by many evidences in our country of a reactionary trend in economics, politics, and religion. It takes many forms. The antics of the John Birch Society; the more measured pamphlets sent to us by the National Association of Manufacturers, in which news and comment on church affairs are mingled with brief statements suggesting that America and Christianity will have a bright future if only Federal taxes are cut and the power of labor unions curbed; and the solid line-up of Congress behind its Committee on Un-American Activities. We are especially concerned at the acceptance of these attitudes by a sizeable segment of college-age youth.”
Tonight’s opening session was marked by an evening worship service led by Rabbi Leo A. Bergman of Touro Synagogue, New Orleans; and a memorial service conducted by Rabbi Alexander A. Steinbach, of Temple Ahavath Sholom, Brooklyn, for nine rabbis who had died during the year. The opening prayer was delivered by Rabbi Maurice N. Eisendrath, president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, with a benediction by Rabbi Julian Morgenstern of Macon, Ga., president-emeritus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and honorary president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
