the Central Conference of American Rabbis
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, June 23-26, 1980
Should an impending national emergency require the reinstitution of the draft, the
Central Conference of American Rabbis urges official government recognition of the
legitimacy of conscientious objection, including the legitimacy of selective conscientious objection.
the Central Conference of American Rabbis
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, June 23-26, 1980
Resolved,
that the question of patrilineal descent be referred to a special committee to be
appointed by the president of the CCAR for full study of the resolutions halachic,
socialk and historical implications, with a mandate to report its recommendations
to a future CCAR convention.
the Central Conference of American Rabbis
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, June 23-26, 1980
There are among us colleagues who are basically satisfied in their positions, but
who seek guidance as to career expectation. Some wish to change rabbinic positions
immediately or in the near future and feel the need for career counseling. Some are
in a period of transition in their careers and need guidance in choosing career opportunities.
Some are currently employed in rabbinic positions but might consider careers in non-rabbinic
capacities and are in need of counseling in selecting among the options.
We call upon the Executive Board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis in consultation
with the leadership of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Hebrew
Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion to establish a program of ongoing career counseling. Such a program should involve at least one individual who has obtained
specific training in career counseling and who would serve as coordinator for the
program for the membership of the Central Conference of American Rabbis.
the Central Conference of American Rabbis
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, June 23-26, 1980
The Central Conference of American Rabbis takes pride that our previous support for
boycotts of table grapes and head lettuce helped the United Farm Workers (AFL-CIO)
organize and improve the lot of American farm workers.
Presently, the influx of illegal immigrants provides a cheap labor force allowing
growers either not to enter into collective bargaining or to refuse to renew previously
enforced agreements. The Bruce Church organization, which markets Red Coach Lettuce,
is the largest grower refusing to bargain with the United Farm Workers.
The Conference calls upon our congregational members to boycott Red Coach Lettuce.
The Conference also calls upon rabbis to work with their local farm workers’ office
in furtherance of this specific boycott and of this cause in general.
the Central Conference of American Rabbis
Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, June 23-26, 1980
In 1967 the Conference stated: “We strongly urge the broad liberalization of abortion
laws in various states, and call upon our members to work toward this end.”
The Conference reaffirms this position with the following comments:
A. Jewish legal literature permits therapeutic abortion.
B. The decision concerning any abortion must be made by the woman and not by the state
or any other external agency.
C. We oppose all constitutional amendments and legislation which would abridge or
circumscribe this right.
D. We call upon our rabbis and upon the Union of American Hebrew Congregations to
strengthen their support of the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights on national,
state and local levels.
by the CCAR
Reform: From Dependency to Self-Sufficiency
Central
Conference of American Rabbis
1994 / 5754
Our tradition teaches that welfare should enhance
the dignity of the recipient, have
self-sufficiency as its highest form and enable those unable to
attain self-sufficiency
to be
supported with the basics of life in a manner that keeps the recipient
family together.
Maimonides taught that the highest
degree of tzedakah
is
to enable a person to earn one’s own livelihood. With millions of
Americans living
below the poverty
line, it is our duty to aid the transition of those in need from
dependency to self-
sufficiency.
To do this effectively, we must
deal with the root causes of poverty and the reasons
people are in the welfare system today. We are aware
that there are many single adults
in need for whom there are no federal programs of assistance.
In many cases there
is no state
program to serve them, or only an inadequate one at best. This is an
issue
for study and
reform.
We believe that the goals of genuine welfare
reform can be achieved only through a
public/private effort that creates full employment with jobs
and wages sufficient
to sustain
families.
We recognize, however, that until
such goals are attained, the nation must continue
to relieve the suffering of those in poverty through
programs such as Aid to Families
with Dependent Children.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the CCAR urge that state and
federal legislation to
reform the
welfare system reflect the following principles:
1) Financial Self-sufficiency
a. Develop and maintain a flexible system, without
arbitrary time limits that includes
a continuum of benefits and case management until the recipient
obtains employment
that will
economically sustain her or his family.
b. Allow people to achieve financial self-sufficiency by
creating programs to allow
for some
welfare recipients to stay at home to care for dependents.
2) Family Stability. Programs
should promote, rather than discourage, family stability
through:
a. Adequate and appropriate child care, with recognition that
part-time parental child
care,
together with part-time wage work, may be a substitute for full-time
wage work.
b. Education,
including life-skills training.
c. Maternal and paternal responsibility.
d. Improved child support enforcement, without
penalizing the single parent for non-disclosure
of the absent parent.
e. Comprehensive health care coverage.
f. Responsible family planning, without “family
cap” penalties.
g. Encouraging
teenage mothers to live with their families, but not penalizing them
for choosing otherwise.
3) Citizenship should not be an
eligibility requirement for benefits.
4) Funding:
a. Funding of
these programs should not be at the expense of established government
programs that currently serve the
economically disadvantaged, the disabled and immigrant
populations.
5) Job Training and Placement programs should:
a. Teach marketable skills.
b. Lead to long-term employment that would
not displace current workers.
c.
Encourage workers to take advantage of the Earned Income Tax
Credit.
National Holocaust Museum
WHEREAS, The United States Holocaust Museum offers
an unparalleled educational experience
for all who visit it; and
WHEREAS, the United States Holocaust Museum has successfully
completed its first year,
drawing
over two million people from all over the United States and from all
over
the world; and
WHEREAS, the United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum provides a profound educational
and emotional experience for all people, warning
against the evils of prejudice,
racism, anti-Semitism, the politics of hate and intolerance;
and
WHEREAS, the United States
Holocaust Museum continues to rely on the financial support
of private donors to maintain the high
quality of its exhibits and related programs;
and
WHEREAS
there exists a National Congregational Campaign in support of the
United States
Holocaust Memorial
Museum that encourages congregational communities to become donors
to the Museum and to memorialize
synagogues or communities destroyed during the Shoah
; and
WHEREAS, the National Congregational Campaign has enjoyed the
endorsement of the CCAR
since its
inception in June of 1991, and its early success is the result of the
leadership
of several CCAR members
and their congregations; therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Central Conference of American Rabbis
urge all of its members
to
encourage their local school systems to make a visit to the United
States Holocaust
Museum a part of
the program of all Junior and Senior High School trips to Washington,
D.C., and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED,
that members of the CCAR encourage their congregations to
participate in the National Congregational
Campaign in support of the United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum to the fullest extent they are
able.
by the CCAR
Pluralism in Israel
Convention of the
Central Conference of American Rabbis
1994 / 5754
Background:
The Israeli Proclamation of Independence of May 14, 1948,
states that full freedom
of
religion and conscience is to be guaranteed to all citizens of Israel.
For the
past 46 years. Muslims
Christians and members of other non-Jewish religions have
enjoyed freedom to practice their religions
and their clergy have been empowered to perform
marriages and grant divorces. However. Reform,
Conservative and Reconstructionist
Jews have had almost no religious rights because their rabbis
are not recognized
under Israeli
law and are prevented from performing basic life cycle functions.
Furthermore,
these Jews are denied
state support for their religious institutions. Thus, the theoretical
right of equality for all Jews in
the State of Israel is translated in practicality into second-class
religious rights for the majority of Israeli Jews. The urgency
of addressing the lack of religious
pluralism in Israel is underscored by the periodic
crises over the status of religion in Israel, crises
in which the American Jewish
community has become involved, and by the 150,000 Soviet and
Ethiopian olim
who
currently cannot marry in Israel.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Central Conference of
American Rabbis call for
the
Government and Knesset of Israel to extend full freedom of religion to
all Jews
in Israel, to end
religious coercion, to end the religious monopoly granted to one
segment of Jewry and to repeal all
laws that discriminate against Reform, Conservative and
Reconstructionist Jews, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the CCAR, in
consonance with the UAHC Biennial resolution,
undertake–together with the other arms of our
Movement in North America, Israel and
the rest of the world, as well as with the other movements and
individuals who support these principles–a concerted effort aimed at
implementing full religious freedom
for the sake of our people in the State of Israel and for
K’lal Yisra-eil
,
and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that
the CCAR direct the Israel Committee to work among our
members and their congregations to raise
consciousness and develop support for the
upbuilding of a liberal Jewish alternative in Israel, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the
CCAR resolve to undertake to place this issue on
the agenda of the Jewish community in North America
through local Community Relations
Committees, relevant Federation committees and in other
organizational venues, local
and
national, and
BE IT FURTHER
RESOLVED, that the CCAR demand the formation of a clear, unequivocal
policy that calls upon the State of
Israel to:
1) recognize in law
the basic human right of marriage, especially for new immigrants
and Jews by choice, and
2) grant legal recognition to the
Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist movements,
whose institutions will make religious pluralism a
reality in Israel.
Central
Conference of American Rabbis
1994 / 5754
WHEREAS, in response to a dramatic increase in
applications, the Hebrew Union College Jewish
Institute of Religion has greatly increased the
number of students admitted in recent
years, and
WHEREAS, there
has not been a concomitant increase in the number of congregational
positions available to the Reform
rabbinate, and
WHEREAS, this
trend has significant implications for such areas as admissions, job
creation, job growth, placement,
unemployment and underemployment, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that the Joint Committee on Rabbinic
Population be charged to examine
carefully the implications of this increase, and report back
with recommendations
to the
Executive Board of the CCAR by its fall meeting, 1994, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the
CCAR share its deliberations with the leadership
of the other Reform professional bodies.
the
Central Conference of American Rabbis
1994 / 5754
Background:
We “rejoice with trembling” as we
mark the 46th year of Israel’s independence and
the progress of the peace process begun last
September 13. Terrorist attacks on Jerusalem,
Hadera and Afula, in apparent retaliation for the
massacre at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron, have made this a
somber time. We have the sense that Israel is rushing
from the known with its familiar and seemingly
secure features into the unknown filled
with apparently mortal danger. Can the people of the democratic
Jewish state dwell in safety and achieve at last the promise of the
Zionist dream–lihiyot am chofshi be-artzeinu?
The World Union for Progressive Judaism,
MARAM, IMPJ and IRAC reacted immediately
to the Massacre at the Cave of the Patriarchs with this
statement:
We condemn the
despicable murder of innocent human beings at the Cave of the
Patriarchs.
We express our profound
condolences to the families of the
deceased.
Though the deed itself was
perpetrated by one demented person, the poison was brewed
by Jewish extremists during the course of
many years of advocating discrimination
and
violence.
These extremists declare that they
are motivated by Jewish religious values and Jewish
interests. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Their ideology and deeds are
anti-
Jewish, anti-Israeli, and anti-humane. In Judaism the life of every
human being
is sacred. “One who
destroys a single human being is considered as having destroyed
the entire universe.” In Judaism
the wholeness of Am Hakodesh,
the holy people, takes precedence over the wholeness of
Eretz Israel
, the holy
land.
We praise the Government of Israel for its
immediate response. We urge the government
to intensify its initiatives in the sacred Jewish vocation, the
“pursuit of peace,”
and we call
on world Jewry to support their efforts with renewed vigor and
determination.
Similar statements
were made spontaneously in virtually all synagogues of our
movement.
We believe that pursuit
of the peace process will give Israel and its neighbors an
opportunity to create an island of progress
in a world increasingly beset by destabilizing
forces. Even though the peace process has not been
completed, it holds the promise that bitter enemies are not inexorably
fated to beat each other to death. It shows
that neither the Serbian-Bosnian nor the Irish
models, tragic as they are, are inevitable.
It affirms the possibility that complicated
conflicts can be resolved diplomatically. Seen this way, the peace
process is a brilliant flash of the light of hope from
Zion, meriting our full
support.
The terrorist attacks since September 13
have shaken our early optimism, yet we affirm
that the peace initiative is far better than the old
status quo. It is an attempt
to
make the center hold in a world of increasing anarchy. Just as it will
be a long
way from the collapse of
the USSR to the establishment of a stable, democratic Europe,
so too do we here recognize that
the path will be strewn with obstacles. This is
all the more reason for us to counsel patience and
to support the pragmatic efforts
of
the moderates.
Toward that end, as the peace
process progresses, we call for clear cut condemnation
by Arab leaders of terrorist acts committed
in the name of “Palestinian justice.”
Such statements, backed by internal organizational discipline,
would go a long way
in building
confidence among Israelis across the political spectrum.
BE IT RESOLVED, that the CCAR, in keeping
with its long tradition of seeking peace
between Israel and its neighbors,
1) Endorse the peace process, recognizing its success in
turning demonized enemies
into
negotiating partners,
2) Call
upon its members to lead their congregations in marshaling local
support for
the peace process,
explaining its advantages and explicating the dangers that lie
in its alternatives. As we condemn
acts of extremism emerging from within the Jewish
community, so do we condemn the series of terrorist
incidents against Israel that have
for so long dominated the Arab response to Israel, and call for
denunciation by the
PLO leadership
of the use of terrorism against Israel, and
3) Call upon our members to reaffirm our full
support for Israel and demonstrate that
support in intensified person-to-person activities, both for
our youths and adults,
increased
philanthropic and investment programs, as well as placing greater
stress
on the acquisition of Hebrew
language skills, and
4) Reject
the call by some of Israel’s chief rabbis and those within other
streams
of Judaism who call upon
Israeli soldiers to defy orders of the State upon the grounds
that the peace process is an
abandonment of Jewish ideals, values and traditions.
We affirm that the peace process embodies the
highest ideals of Judaism.
CCAR
‘s Rights
Convention of the
Central Conference of American Rabbis
1994 / 5754
Background:
The Central Conference of
American Rabbis has consistently advocated equal rights
for women in all aspects of life: political,
economic and social. The equality of
women in religious life has been a principle of Reform Judaism
since its inception.
While Judaism
has not historically granted women equal rights under traditional
Halacha
, Jewish
tradition has recognized from the beginning that women were created
equal
to men in the most
fundamental sense–“in the Divine image, male and female God created
them and blessed them” (Genesis
1:27). In addition, violence against women was prohibited by our
sages; marital rape was forbidden (Eruvin 100b), and authorities from
Rabbi
Meir of Rothenberg
(Responsa
Even
Ha-ezer
297,298,718-C) to
Rabbi Moses Isseries (Shulkan Aruch, 1634) unambiguously condemned
spousal abuse, physical or verbal.
Furthermore, the traditional Ketubbah
, while not egalitarian, protected other economic
rights of women. Also, though women
were traditionally unable to serve as legal witnesses, they
were given equal protection
under
economic contracts and were allowed to inherit when there were no male
heirs (Numbers 27:8).
Although
past CCAR resolutions on women’s equality implied that equal rights
ought
to be extended to women
worldwide, fundamental abuses of women across the globe now
compel us to articulate our support for
international women’s rights directly. This
resolution unequivocally expresses our belief that
women everywhere deserve the same rights
and opportunities as their fathers, brothers, husbands and
sons; that discrimination
according
to gender is unjust, and that women’s rights are unquestionably human
rights.
Throughout the world, women are
discriminated against and suffer intolerable abuses
because of their gender. All too often, they are
denied such fundamental freedoms
as
the right to vote, travel freely, testify in court, inherit property,
choose a
spouse and obtain custody
of their children. In addition, women have unequal access to
education,
employment, health care
and even food. As a result, 70 percent of the world’s rapidly
growing poverty-stricken population
is female. Furthermore, women worldwide are subject to such abuses as
domestic violence, rape, forced prostitution and other
forms of exploitation, and even genital
mutilation.
This unequal treatment is more than
a matter of the denial of abstract rights–it is
a matter of life and death. In many nations, women
and girls are dying and disappearing
at a rate that indicates they are being deliberately
eliminated. The 1991 census
found
100 million fewer women than statistics expected. In Asia alone,
reports revealed
at least 60
million “missing women”–females whose births were recorded, who
then
disappeared.  
;
In the words of the United Nations
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
Against women (CEDAW)such
discrimination “violates the principles of equality of
rights and respect for human dignity.”
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the
Central Conference of American Rabbis:
1) Supports efforts to put an end, once and for all, to the
vast numbers of human
rights abuses
suffered by women, simply because they are women;
2) Urges members to educate themselves, their
congregations and their communities
as to the nature, prevalence and manifestations of
discrimination against women worldwide;
3) Calls upon the United States to ratify the Convention on the
Elimination of All
Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW);
4) Commends Canada for its ratification of CEDAW, and
5) Calls upon the governments of
the United States and Canada to:
a. Consider a nation’s record on human rights, including
women’s rights, in determining
foreign aid packages, trade status, trade agreements and other
forms of assistance;
b. Seek a
higher level of United Nations commitment to women’s equality as a
human
right; call upon all nations
to give equal opportunity to female children and urge
all nations that have ratified CEDAW to assure that
practices comply with provisions
of
the treaty as they are ratified; and
c. Ensure that discussion of the human rights of women is
included in all relevant
global
conferences.