Synagogue Council of America

The Synagogue Council of America was an organization of American Jewish synagogue associations, founded in 1926, including :

• The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (Orthodox)
• The Rabbinical Council of America (Orthodox)
• The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (Conservative)
• The Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative)
• The Union of American Hebrew Congregations (Reform)
• The Central Conference of American Rabbis (Reform)

The organization dissolved in 1994, facing financial difficulties and fractiousness among its members, the organization effectively collapsed after a proposal to relocate the council's offices from Manhattan to White Plains, New York, where it would have been housed in a Reform congregation, was rejected by Orthodox members of the organization. Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of the Orthodox Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun served as the organization's final president lamented the lack of "people who are really interested in maintaining the organization."

The records of the organization are stored with the Center for Jewish History (CJH) in New York, which also maintains a history of the organization.

The North American Boards of Rabbis was formed in 1999, as part of an effort at interdenominational cohesiveness in the Jewish community. The organization would be a parent body for boards of rabbis in individual communities, with its first president being Orthodox Rabbi Marc Schneier, who was then serving as president of the New York Board of Rabbis.

External links

• (American Jewish Historical Society) Center for Jewish History : Guide to the Records of the Synagogue Council of America (retrieved July 19, 2010) (archived at http://www.webcitation.org/5rLucIVgI)