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ZI NIS the American Jewish Community Through Unwise and Israeli Government a Clear and Forceful Expression Of

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ZI NIS the American Jewish Community Through Unwise and Israeli Government a Clear and Forceful Expression Of 584 THE JEW IN THE M 0 DERN W 0 IUD position. Any other position on the part of the State futile discussions between our two communities, will of Israel would only weaken the American and other strengthen them both and will lay the foundation for Jewish communities of the free, democratic countries even closer cooperation .... and be contrary to the basic interests of Israel itself. The future development of Israel, spiritual, social as NOTES well as economic, will largely depend upon a strong 1. Even before Israel was established, the American i and healthy Jewish community in the United States Jewish Committee (AJC) received assurances from the · and other free democracies. Jewish Agency (see document 33, note 1, in chapter 9) We have been greatly distressed that at the very that the Jewish State would refrain from interfering in hour when so much has been achieved, harmful and American Jewish internal affairs. Israeli officials con~ futile discussions and misunderstandings have arisen tinued to assure the AJC on that score after May 1948, as to the relations between the people and the State when the State was established. However, when in of Israel and the Jews in other countries, particularly 1949 Ben-Gurion called for large-scale immigration to in the United States. Harm has been done to the Israel by American Jewish youth, the committee pro­ morale and to some extent to the sense of security of tested vigorously. The AJC sought to work out with the ZI NIS the American Jewish community through unwise and Israeli government a clear and forceful expression of. unwarranted statements and appeals which ignore policy on immigration and on the principle of nonin­ the feelings and aspirations of American Jewry. terference. The occasion arose in the summer of 1950 Even greater harm has been done to the State of when Jacob Blaustein was a guest of the Israeli govern­ Israel itself by weakening the readiness of American ment. An agreement was sealed in the form of a state­ he term Zionism wa~ most probably coined by Nathan Birnbaum (1864-1937), a Jews to do their full share in the rebuilding of Israel ment read at a luncheon by Prime Minister Ben-Gurion leader of the Hoveve1 Zion, a loose federation ofJewish groups devoted to the national which faces such enormous politicaL social and eco­ and a response by Jacob Blaustein. Both reaffirmed the resettlement of the Jews in their ancestral homeland. The Hovevei Zion viewed resettle­ nomic problems. agreement in April 1961. (See Naomi Cohen, Not Free, to Desist [1972], pp. 310ff.) ment ~s th_e. solution to the Jewish question, which it variously defined as the problem Your statement today, Mr. Prime Minister, will, I 2. David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), Zionist labor leader! of ant1s_e~It1sm or the problem of Judaism in a modern, secular world. Significantly, the trust, be followed by unmistakable evidence that the Jewish statesman, architect of the Jewish state, and the ter~1.Z10ms.m re~ects both traditional sentiment (the longing for Zion) and a modern responsible leaders of Israel, and the organizations first prime minister of Israel. pohtICal onentat10n. This fact is dearly reflected in the Bilu Program of 1882 (see docu­ connected with it, fully understand that future rela­ 1 ). 3. Haluz (plural, haluzim), a pioneer, especially in agricul­ ment tions between the American Jewish community and ture in the Land of Israel. It is fre_quently assumed that Zionism is a response to modern antisemitism. This the State of Israel must be based on mutual respect 4. Jacob Blaustein (1892-1970), associated with his ~s but ?~rtially tr:ie. As integral to Zionism as its negative reaction to antisemitism is, for one another's feelings and needs, and on the pres­ father, Louis, in the founding of the American Oil: its ~ositive ass:rt1on of ~elief in the messianic prophecy and the historic destiny of the ervation of the integrity of the two communities and Company. Jacob Blaustein was director and mem Jew.1sh people 1s equally important. The leading precursors of Zionism, Rabbi Zvi Hirsch their institutions. ber of the board of major companies in the fields o Kal~sc?er (1795-1874), Rabbi Judah Solomon Hai Alkalai (1798-1878), and even the I believe that in your statement today, you have petroleum, insurance, and banking; he was report socialist Moses Hess (1812-1875), were moved to create a Jewish settlement in Palestine taken a fundamental and historic position which will edly one of the richest individuals in Americ ~ot only by ~ociopolitical considerations but also by a deep religious conviction that the redound to the best interest not only of Israel, but of Blaustein played an active role in Jewish affairs an time for the mgathering of the exiles had arrived-the prophecy was to be literally acted the Jews of America and of the world. I am confident had a major commitment to the American Jewis upon. The?dor Herzl (see document 6), the founder of the World Zionist Organization, that this statement and the spirit in which it has been Committee, which he served as president from 194 wa~ pre~r:imently concerned with the Judennot-the distress or problem of the Jews, viz., made, by eliminating the misunderstandings and to 1954. antisemitism. But many of the aforementioned Hovevei Zion groups-which preceded Herzl by almost two decades and which constituted a significant element in the World Zionist.Organization-were equally concerned with the Not des Judentums, the problem of Judaism. They were thus preeminently devoted to securing the future of Jewish cul­ ture both in the Diaspora and in Palestine. To this end they sought to foster the revival oft~~ Hebrew langu~ge as the basis of a seculai; national culture (see document 5). This p~slt1.o?_was best articulated by Ahad Haam (see document 9), who did not withhold his cntmsm of Herzl's political Zionism. In a certain respect, the differences between Herzl and Ahad Haam reflect the dif­ fere.n_ces between Wes~ an~ East European Jewry, stemming from their contrasting political and cultural situat10ns. In Eastern Europe the secularization that affected the Jews was accompanied neither, as it was by and large in the West, by a jettisoning of 585 X • Zionism 587 national culture and identity nor, most important, by emancipation. The secularized East European Jew, with rare exceptions, continued to live in a ghetto situation-where not stem the mounting political prestige of the Zionist movement. In the aftermath of opportunities for assimilation were limited-and continued to speak Yiddish, read the Shoah this international recognition of Zionism was reinforced by a groundswell of Hebrew, partake in Jewish folkways, and identify ethnically as Jews. In short, secular sympathy for the .bereaved Jewish people. On November 29, 1947, the United Nations Jewish culture was already a reality for many East European Jews. Zionists like Ahad declared.the creat10n of a Jewish st~t~ in Palestine. The following year, on May 14, David llaam merely sought to give it a specific direction in order to assure its vitality and Ben-Gunon,. on. behalf of. the Prov1s10nal Government fiormed by the z·10ms · t parties· o f creativity. Moreover, the multiethnic character of some of the states of Eastern Europe Palestme, offiCially proclaimed the creation of an independent State of Israel. theoretically presented the Jews with the possibility of a secular national culture within the context of modern society. However, East European Jewry was forced to face the brutal nature of antisemitism in a much more violent fashion than Western Jewry, and because of the exigency of this problem East European Zionists were pressed to develop a program of immediate, practical solutions that involved alternatives that did not require the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in Palestine. This dual empha­ sis on "interim" solutions and practical action in both Palestine and the Diaspora is exemplified by the policy of Gegenwartsarbeit ('\vork in the present"; see document 20) and by the fact that East European Jewry provided the vast majority of the earlier, i.e., before 1933, waves of immigration (aliyot) to Palestine. The initial aliyotwere animated by the distinctive ethos and ideals of haluziut (pioneering). Dedicated to rebuilding the land of Israel, these olirn (immigrants) regarded their efforts as the realization of both personal and national renewal (see documents 21, 30). They helped create unique institutions as well (see documents 24 and 41). In contradistinction to East European Zionism, Western Zionism until the rise of Nazism was largely a philanthropic move­ ment devoted to the welfare of the persecuted Jews of Eastern Europe. The Zionism of Western Jews did not necessarily entail a personal commitment to immigrate to Palestine. It did, however, contribute significantly to the intellectual and ideological fermentation of the Zionist movement of the East and the West. As can be discerned from the documents, the World Zionist Organization embraced a wide spectrum of ideological positions, from Poalei Zion on the Left to Revisionism on the Right (see documents 19 and 38). What unites these divergent ideological positions is the rejection of Exile (galut or golus in traditional parlance). "The Zionist attitude begins," as the historian Ben Halpern observes, "with a lively awareness and affirmation of Exile as a condition"; this condition is inherently problematic for continued Jewish existence. The analysis of this condition varies, of course, according to one's ideological orientation. 1The intellectual substance of Zionism/' Halpern emphasizes, "is the rejection of Exile: not the denial of Exile, please note, but its rejection .... There were two historical attitudes to which Zionism opposed itself, and in opposing, was defined.
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