Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 49, No. 50, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 14, 1995 Page: 3 of 44
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HANUKA ISSUE ■ IIN OUR 49TH YEAR'.-THURSDA Y, DECEMBER 14, 1995, TEXAS JEWISH POST 3
Features
K\hor(s Schindler
His Parting Message to IJAIIC
By Debra Nussbaum Cohen
ATLANTA - When Rabbi Alexander
Schindler stepped up to the podium to
deliver his farewell presidential address
here last month the more lhan 4,(XX) Re-
form Jews packed into Atlanta's civic cen-
ter knew that they would hear exquisite
imagery and oratory.
Many also expected that in the speech
he referred to as his "Jewish ethical will."
the outgoing president of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations would
discuss some controversial new policies,
as he has routinely done in the past.
At the last biennial convention, for ex-
ample. Schindler proposed that the Reform
movement proselytize Judaism to non-
Jews, and that congregations allow the
non-Jewish parents of B'nai Mit/vah to be
accorded the fullest possible honors con-
nected to the Torah.
r This year, however, Schindler exhorted
his fellow Reform Jews to follow a more
traditional path.
"I feared and still do that we Reform
Jews arc entirely too lax in our observanc-
es," said Schindler, who has led the move-
ment for 22 years and will officially retire
in June.
"Having asserted our autonomy, insist-
ing on our right tochoose. too many among
uschoose nothings all, or. choosing some-
thing, we observe it only haphazardly.”
Schindler’-s farewell was addressed to
delegates to the UAHC’s Fn»-day biennial
and the parallel Women of Reform Juda-
ism and National Federation of Temple
Youth conventions.
Participants attended dozens of work-
shops and panel discussions, most of them
. Rabbi Alexander Schindler
still praising the paths and teachings of Torah.
Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie
devoted to the themes of education, observance and s<iial
action.
At a plenary session, a vote to change the name of the
organization to something more contemporary and reflec-
tive of its mandate fell a few votes shy of the two-thirds
necessary to alter the organization’s constitution.
The group also adopted a new policy to permit only
children who are not being educated in another religion to
be enrolled in the movement’s religious schools.
Resolutions supporting American military involvement
in Bosnia and one applauding a deal struck between the
movement’s youth group and Habitat for Humanity for
Reform teens to construct houses for the poor and homeless
passed easily.
And in a show of support for religious pluralism in Israel,
two Israeli natives, unable to marry in their homeland
because he is a Kohen and she is divorced, were married in
front of the delegates and the bride’s beaming parents.
The message from the lop of the movement, however,
was focused on religious observance of Jewish rituals in an
almost traditional mode
"The covenant is a two-way street, my friends, and in
this, my parting message and my ethical will, I urge our
• ^
fellow Reform Jews to abandon the non-
committal stance that tin) many have about
temple life,” said Schindler in his remarks.
"So inbound arc we in our lives from
community, so accustomed to our individ-
ualism. that we often carry a kind of con-
sumers! prove-it-to-me attitude that is
impossible for even the best rabbi and the
liveliest congregation to fulfill.
"Let us overcome the arrogance that
blocks our perception of divinity. Let us
overcome the fear that constrains us to flee
from the synagogue and from spiritual com-
mitment.’’ he said.
He defined his movtmcnf s central mis-
sion as one of teaching "our children To-
rah, not just to know Torah, nor even to
teach Torah, but to be Torah.”
Still, Schindlerdid not neglect the things
that make Reform Judaism unique, He
emphasized the value of outreach to non-
Jews married to Jews, social action and a
paradigm that questions all orthodoxies.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, who will fully take
over as president ol the UAHC when Schin-
dler retires, closed the biennial convention
by amplifying the themes articulated by hi s
predecessor.
Yoffie made it clear that the move-
ment's leadership is catching up with its
constituency, which for the last few years
has been evincing a hunger for greater
JewisrtSiteracy and religious connection.
"The urgent need of the hour is a spiri-
tual intensification of major proportions,”
said Yoffie.
"My goal is to build a movement of
Reform Jews or whom Torah is at the
center of their lives.
SCHINDLER p. 39
Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 49, No. 50, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 14, 1995, newspaper, December 14, 1995; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth755532/m1/3/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .