Resolution Adopted by the CCAR
SOCIAL BETTERMENT
Digests of resolutions adopted by the
Central Conference of American Rabbis
between 1889 and 1974
1. It is incumbent upon all men to study ills of existing social order and
address
our God-given intelligence to the extermination of slums, vice, poverty, etc.
(1928,
p. 81)
2. We challenge the oft-repeated thesis that economic and spiritual collapse
is inevitable
at the close of a war. If we can rise to moral and spiritual heights, we can
make
the aftermath of war not evil but good. (1942, p. 109)
3. Since this Conference last went on record in opposition to the then-pending
Mundt-Nixon
bill and deplored the hysteria against government employees and public
figures, there
has been a further extension of that hysteria which touches the spokesmen of
religion even more intimately. In recent months the House Committee on
Un-American Activities
has released publicly the names of large numbers of clergymen who are alleged
to
have signed the Stockholm Peace Petition or otherwise to have cooperated with
communist-front organizations. In no case was any effort made to ascertain the
real position
of these clergymen before publication of their names.
In some instances the names published were those of men who had supported a
given
organization or cause long before there was any indication that it constituted
a
communist front or at a time before
it had been "taken over" for such purposes. No distinction was made
between such individuals
and those who may have supported the same cause knowing the identity and
purpose
of its sponsors. Despite a rather perfunctory explanation by the Committee
that not all names so publicized were those of communist sympathizers, the
fact remains that
a stigma is unavoidably attached to all such individuals.
The equation of all criticism and reforms with communist is not only a
violation of
the individual’s right to free thought and free speech, but represents a
vicious
obstacle to all social progress in a democracy.
There is reason to suspect that this may have been a conscious device to
intimidate
the spokesmen of liberal religion and to discourage their communicants from
following
them. Because we believe this is to represent a very real danger to the
freedom of
American thought, we urgently recommend the following: That Committees of the
Congress
be enjoined from publicizing the names of any American Citizens who have not
been
given an opportunity to defend themselves against specific charges.
That provision be made for the protection of an individual against libelous
remarks
made by Congressmen on the floor of either the Senate or the House. That
members
of this Conference refuse to abdicate their prophetic responsibility to expose
political,
social and economic corruption wherever they may be found. Especially in such
times
as these, when so many other voices have been silenced, is it incumbent upon
us not
to be intimidated. We reaffirm the sacred duty of religious leaders and
teachers
to act as the conscience of society. (1951, pp. 105-6)
4. See Rabbi, Freedom of, Sec. 6 (1953) .
5. Teachers and clergymen who are especially concerned with the moral and
ethical
principles on which our democracy is founded, have a special responsibility
for the
preservation of those principles. We are enheartened by the number of our own
colleagues
who have courageously brought the message of prophetic Judaism to bear on the
problems
of contemporary society, and we urge this Conference as well as the Union of
American
Hebrew Congregations to uphold and encourage these men. (1954, p. 55)