SELECTED REFORM RESPONSA
frequent articles in the C("AR Journal and elsewhere by Reform rabbis demonstrate continued concern; minor discussions of this question occurred at conferences through the years. It was not brought to the floor of the Conference again until 1947, when a lengthy report of a special committee under the chairmanship of Solomon B. Freehof proposed a set of recommendations with considerable annotations, which were adopted after some debate(“Report on Mixed Marriages and Intermarriage,” CCAR Yearbook, pp. 158). The Conference reaffirmed the 1909 resolution on mixed marriage and then proceeded to deal with the specifics involved in mixed marriage through resolutions embodied in the report. These were as follows:
II. The CCAR considers all sincere applicants for proselytizing as acceptable whether or not it is the intention of the candidate to marry a Jew.
[IT We consider civil marriage to be completely valid but lacking the sanctity which religion
can bestow upon it. We recommend that whenever a civil marriage between Jews has taken place, it be followed as soon as possible by a Jewish religious marriage ceremony.
[V. Since it is the point of view of the Conference that all sincere applicants for conversion be accepted whether marriage is involved or not, and since. too, we recognize the validity of civil marriages but urge that they be sanctified by a religious marriage ceremony, we surely would accept such a proselyte and officiate at the religious marriage. However, it should be clear that the fact that the couple is already married by civil law does not obviate the necessity of conversion of the Gentile party before the Jewish marriage service can take place.
234