Some 1,350 American rabbis of all three branches of the Jewish faith–Orthodox, Conservative and Reform-this week-end scored the American Council for Judaism in one of the sharpest denunciations of the Council voiced. The statement was released by the New York Board of Rabbis, which circularized 1,500 rabbis in all parts of the country with the document.
The joint declaration hit the American Council for Judaism, asserting that it has “consistently misrepresented the Jewish people before the bar of public opinion” and “has consistently maligned and impugned the integrity of Jewish institutions, organizations and causes, and has consistently distorted the precepts of Judaism which it purports to serve. The joint declaration reprimanded the ant-Zionist organization for what it termed “slanders” against American Jews “who adhere to the ideals of Zionism.”
Asserting that the Council’s “real goal is the complete disappearance of the Jewish people,” the declaration stressed that the Council represents numerically “an infinitesimal fraction” of American Jewry. “we view with contempt the Council’s attempt to dissuade Americans from helping their fellow Jews and the State of Israel through contributions to the United Jewish Appeal and the Israel Bond Drive,” the rabbis’ statement continued. “If the Council is unwilling to aid in the rescue and rehabilitation of harassed Jews, let it at least not frustrate the efforts of those who would,” it said.
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