Jewish Leaders Warned Against ‘debunking’ Religious Revival

A warning to Jewish leaders against “debunking” the present religious revival was issued yesterday by Dr. Abraham J. Hartford, Conn. , president of the Synagogue Council of America, at the close of the SCA two-day annual general assembly;

Dr. Feldman spoke with dismay about “the tendency” to regard spiritual renaissance with “incredulity” and warned his colleagues against “going too far” in their search for causes of the revived interest in Jewish religious identification in the U. S.

He questioned the “propriety” of “probing” the sincerity of persons who in increasing numbers are joining synagogues and asked the General Assembly “how can we sit in judgment when they come to worship and seek education?”

In a summary, Dr. Max D. Davidson of Perth Amboy, N. J., SCA vice-president, reported “substantial increases” in synagogue membership but warned against dangers of “secularization.”

Rabbi Marc H. Tanenbaum, executive director of the SCA, said American Jews have achieved a “status and security” that was “unprecedented” in Jewish history. He said this was due to the transformation of the United States from a Protestant into a “three-religion nation, “permitting Judaism to achieve an integration in the United States it has never had before.