Convention of Reform Rabbis Discusses Growth of Mixed Marriages

The Central Conference of American Rabbis, meeting at its 73rd annual convention here, authorized today a detailed study of mixed marriage in this country. The decision was taken after the 500 delegates heard a report from Rabbi Eugene Mihaly, professor at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, who had stated that intermarriage between Jews and other religious groups is increasing and will continue.

The CCAR, rabbinical organization of Reform Judaism in America, also adopted resolutions today strongly censuring the State Department for its failure to protest more vigorously against Soviet restrictions on Jews; expressing opposition to nuclear testing by any nation; endorsing President Kennedy’s Medicare program for the aged; and sharply condemning the so-called Christian anti-Communist Crusade and other extreme right-wing groups as “ominous threats to American freedom and democracy.”

The convention also approved the report of a special committee on the relation of Reform Judaism and the State of Israel, in which the Reform rabbinate committed itself “to provide the fullest measure of moral and material support and assistance for the people of the State of Israel” but declared that American and Israeli Jews have no right to speak for each other.

The rabbis today also called upon the United States Government to act without further delay in demanding and initiating steps toward an Arab-Israel peace settlement. At the same time, the rabbis voiced strong concern over Egyptian President Nasser’s use of American economic aid to purchase Soviet arms for use against Israel’s people.

Rabbi Mihaly, who reported on mixed marriages, told the rabbis in his report that, while precise statistical data and depth studies of any scope are virtually non-existent, “there is evidence that an ever-increasing number of Jewish men and woman are marrying and will continue to marry outside of the Jewish group; that the numbers involved are higher than is generally assumed; and that mixed marriage represents the major cause of attrition of the Jewish community.”

Rabbi Mihaly’s report was “received” by the convention for publication in the CCAR’s yearbook, but was not accompanied by any action other than adoption of his recommendation for the “establishment of a permanent committee” to gather and evaluate available data, initiate new statistical and depth studies, make findings and recommendations to the CCAR, and undertake these projects in conjunction with the other arms of the Reform movement. “

The convention and the CCAR executive board agreed that Rabbi Albert G. Minda of Minneapolis and Rabbi Leon Feuer of Toledo, CCAR president and vice-president respectively, were fully authorized in issuing a plea earlier this month for the commutation to life imprisonment of the capital punishment sentence of Adolf Eichmann “in accordance with the standing policy of the CCAR regarding public statements endorsing accepted CCAR principles. ” Twelve Reform rabbis had issued a statement on their own immediately following the clemency plea issued by Rabbis Minda and Feuer “repudiating” the action of the CCAR president and vice-president.