AS SUBMITTED:
Because there are apparently basically different points of view on religious education within the Union; and because there are already in print sufficient Union textbooks and materials clearly expressing the views of many UAHC member congregations on Reform Education; therefore:
BE IT RESOLVED that steps be taken immediately to insure for those member congregations which favor the strictly religious or classically Reform approach:
- Greater representation on the appropriate committees of the Commission on Jewish Education;
- General agreement to the publication of additional textbooks and other materials that will be avowedly oriented to such congregations and their religious schools;
- An immediate re-examination of all curricular materials produced by the Commission on Jewish Education; and thereafter a continuing, regular appraisal along those lines to ensure a full curriculum oriented to the classically Reform approach.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE:
Your Committee on Resolution recommends to the General Assembly unfavorable action upon this resolution. The resolution seems to imply that there has not been adequate or fair representation in the Commission on Jewish Education. Members of that Commission are nominated and elected by the groups composing it, the C.C.A.R. and the U.A.H.C., and any group has always been at liberty to seek representation on the Commission.
Textbooks and other materials have reflected and do reflect the interpretation of Judaism and of Reform Judaism upheld by the Union and the overwhelming majority of its congregations. It is neither practical nor desirable that the Commission should issue two kinds of texts for two different interpretations or needs.
Curricula of all kinds are constantly studied by the Commission's Curriculum Committee and the ones currently recommended for use do represent the direction and opinion of the great majority of our constituents.
Your Committee recommends the rejection of the resolution.
ACTION:
The report of the Committee was accepted.