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NEWS
Reform Congregations Denied Membership in Swiss Umbrella
Organization
by S. Fried
At a large gathering of representatives from Jewish
organizations around Switzerland held before Shavuos, the
official Swiss Jewish community -- SIG -- officially rejected
a request by Reform groups for membership, reports the
Yiddishe Tzeitung.
SIG is the umbrella group for organized Jewish communities in
Switzerland and includes Orthodox and chareidi
kehillos among its members. In practice all Swiss Jews
belong to the organization, whose primary task is to
represent the Jewish community vis-a-vis the government.
Recently two Liberal (i.e. Reform) communities in Geneva and
Bern asked to join the organization. They claimed since the
SIG is not a political organization it must accept every
kehilloh asking to join. The Orthodox organizations
flatly rejected the request and announced they would withdraw
from SIG if the Reform groups were accepted as members.
A statement of opinion publicized by chareidi representatives
-- including HaRav Breische of the Agudas Achim of Zurich,
HaRav Levi of Zurich, Rav Folger, the Chief Rabbi of Basel,
and rabbonim from the French-speaking region of Switzerland --
explained that a Reform organization cannot be recognized as
an organization since the Reform do not accept fundamental
principles such as Torah from Sinai, and therefore there is
no common ground. The request for acceptance by the Reform as
members was intended to induce the Jewish communities of
Switzerland to legitimize their approach. Despite the
refusal, members of the Reform organization can still be
accepted as members of the general Jewish community on an
individual basis.
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