Rabbinical Council of America

The Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) is one of the world's largest organizations of Orthodox Jewish rabbis; it is affiliated with The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, more commonly known as the Orthodox Union, or OU.

History

The roots of the organization go back to 1923 when it was founded as the Rabbinical Council of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. Its purpose was to perpetuate and promote Orthodox Judaism in the United States of America.

Its members attempted on a number of occasions to merge with other Jewish groups, for the purpose of developing a unified traditional rabbinate for the American Jewish community. A number of attempts were made to join with groups such as Agudath Yisroel, but all such attempts were rebuffed. A merger took place in 1935 between the Rabbinical Council of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations and another Orthodox rabbinical group, the Rabbinical Association of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, a part of Yeshiva University. With this merger the combined group took the name Rabbinical Council of America, known in the Jewish community as the RCA. In later years the RCA attempted to merge with another Orthodox rabbinical group, the Rabbinical Alliance of America, but this attempt came to naught.

Most of its members are actively working as pulpit rabbis; a significant minority are working in Jewish education.

It publishes an English quarterly journal, Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Jewish Thought, which began in 1958, and a Hebrew journal, Hadorom, which began in 1957.

See also

Orthodox Judaism

External links

• Rabbinical Council of America (official website)