Rabbi Baruch Rabinowitz
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“I had just begun to come back into such military force to help bring about 1940 the Revisionist Zionists had sent Profile the stream of the living,” Rabinowitz the creation of a Jewish state. one of their representatives, Benjamin later recalled. “I had just begun to Bergson realized early on that to Akzin (who later became the dean of think in terms of the world around me influence London, he had to go the Hebrew University law faculty), to and the problems of my people rather through Washington. With England meet with members of Congress on than my own tragedy.” desperate for US aid in its war with occasion, but they did not have the Instead of allowing his grief to break Germany, the British government resources to sustain the effort. Now him, Rabinowitz resolved to devote his would have difficulty resisting a plan Rabinowitz would try to succeed life to furthering the ideals of Jewish endorsed by the Americans. Bergson where his predecessors had failed. pride, self-defense and the forthright needed someone full-time in the In the autumn of 1941, Rabinowitz political action for which Jabotinsky nation’s capital to press the case for a began his work on Capitol Hill. “Day stood. He resigned from B’nai Jewish army. He turned to after day I visited members of Congress An Unorthodox Rabbi on Capitol Hill: Abraham in late 1940 and moved to Rabinowitz, whose plea of “I’ve never of both Houses,” he recalled. “I saw an New York to work full-time for the met a congressman in my life—I average of six congressmen a day, five The Legacy of American Friends of a Jewish Palestine, wouldn’t know how to begin,” fell on days a week.” His first and closest ally in a Revisionist faction involved in pro- deaf ears. Although Rabinowitz was a Washington was an Irish-American con- moting Aliyah Bet—immigration from novice in the political world, he was gressman from New York, Andrew Europe to Palestine in defiance of the an experienced public speaker and Somers, whose hostility to the British British White Paper restrictions. possessed good interpersonal skills. drew him to support Zionism. Rabbi Baruch Rabinowitz Among Rabinowitz’s close colleagues Earlier attempts at Jewish lobbying Rabinowitz worked out of Somers’ By Rafael Medoff in the Aliyah Bet campaign was Rabbi in Washington had never taken hold. office and used his connection with the Louis I. Newman of Temple Rodeph During the late 1930s, the mainstream congressman to cultivate ties with Shalom in New York City, one of the American Zionist movement briefly numerous other members of Congress. few Reform rabbis who supported operated a Capitol Hill office led by He built relations on both sides of the Jabotinsky. Despite their theological dif- Isadore Breslau, but that lobbying aisle, although Republicans were often ferences, the Orthodox son of the effort soon fell victim to budget cuts more receptive to Rabinowitz’s appeals, Brownsviller Rebbe and the Upper West and divisions among Zionist leaders while many Democrats hesitated to defy Side disciple of Stephen Wise worked over the propriety of pressing Jewish the Roosevelt administration’s line on Long before there was such a in Washington that is today a staple of are today on display at the Jabotinsky side by side and developed a deep per- L issues in Washington. Likewise, in Palestine or refugees. The tireless young thing as AIPAC or the Orthodox American Jewish political life. Museum in Tel Aviv. sonal admiration for one another. Union’s Institute for Public Affairs After his return to the United States (IPA), long before the term “Jewish in 1934, Rabinowitz continued his From New York to lobby” had entered the American Born in Brooklyn in 1914, studies part time at the Rabbi Isaac political lexicon, a young Orthodox Rabinowitz was the son of the Elchanan Theological Seminary Washington rabbi was lobbying on Capitol Hill to “Brownsviller Rebbe,” Rabbi Samuel A. (RIETS)—which is today Yeshiva rescue Jews from the Holocaust and Rabinowitz, a sixth-generation direct University’s affiliated rabbinical The group for which Rabinowitz establish a Jewish state. Rabbi Baruch descendant of the Ba’al Shem Tov, the school—while assuming an active role in worked in New York was led by a Rabinowitz, who passed away in founder of Chassidism. Raised in the American wing of the Jabotinsky dynamic Jabotinskyite emissary from Jerusalem this past December at the Canada and Bayonne, New Jersey, movement. When Palestinian Arab Jerusalem named Hillel Kook. The age of eighty-nine, was an unrecog- Baruch traveled to Jerusalem in 1932 to rioting erupted anew in 1936, the nephew of Rabinowitz’s revered teacher, nized pioneer of the lobbying activity study under Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Revisionist leadership sent him on a Chief Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook, Hakohen Kook, the first chief rabbi of speaking tour to raise funds for the Hillel adopted the pseudonym “Peter Dr. Medoff is director of The David S. Wyman British Mandatory Palestine, from Irgun Zvai Leumi, the underground Bergson” in America to shield his fami- Institute for Holocaust Studies, which focuses whom he received rabbinical ordination. militia established by Revisionists to ly from any embarrassing publicity. on issues related to America’s response to the During those years, Rabinowitz combat Arab violence. Bergson arrived in the United States Above: A Bergson Group Holocaust–(www.WymanInstitute.org). became a follower of Vladimir Ze’ev In 1938, Rabinowitz began a in the spring of 1940, and under his advertisement that His books include A Race Against Death: Jabotinsky, founder of the militant promising new career in the rabbinate leadership the American Friends of a appeared in the Chicago Sun on Monday, Peter Bergson, America, and the Holocaust Revisionist Zionist movement (the as spiritual leader of Congregation Jewish Palestine was transformed into November 29, 1943. forerunner of today’s Likud Party). B’nai Abraham in Hagerstown, the Committee for a Jewish Army, (coauthored with David S. Wyman)(New Right: Baruch Maryland. But less than two years York, 2003), Militant Zionism in America: Shortly after the Nazis rose to power which campaigned for the creation of Rabinowitz addressing a The Rise and Impact of the Jabotinsky in Germany in 1933, Rabinowitz and later, his life was shattered when his a Jewish armed force to fight alongside meeting in Washington, Movement in the United States, 1926- a group of his fellow activists climbed wife, Harriet, was killed by a reckless the Allies against the Nazis. The DC, circa 1943. Photo 1948 (Alabama, 2002) and Historical atop the German Consulate in driver. Three months after that came British rejected the proposal because of courtesy of The David S. Dictionary of Zionism (coauthored with Jerusalem and tore down its swastika another traumatic loss—the sudden Arab opposition, and because they Wyman Institute for Chaim I. Waxman) (Maryland, 2000). flag. The charred remains of the flag death of his revered leader, Jabotinsky. feared the Jews would eventually use Holocaust Studies Spring 5764/2004 JEWISH ACTION JEWISH ACTION Spring 5764/2004 Leventhal (regarded as the chief rabbi their keynote speaker. He did so, and in 1944 to raise funds for Bergson’s The Search For Baruch Rabinowitz of Philadelphia). Also among the Support from Hollywood the gathering raised over $100,000. Holocaust rescue work, featured skits Unique among Jewish organizations, the Bergson group voluntarily dissolved marchers were many young rabbis who Cohen himself organized a fundraiser at and comedy routines by Bob Hope, shortly after the creation of the State of Israel. It had been conceived strictly as a would later become prominent such as and Broadway Slapsie Maxie’s nightclub in Gracie Fields, Jimmy Durante, Ethel vehicle for confronting an emergency; after the Holocaust and the establishment of Rabbis Moshe Feinstein, Abraham Bergson had a penchant for creating Hollywood. As Hecht described it, the Merman, Zero Mostel, Molly Picon the Jewish State, it was no longer needed. It left behind no alumni association and Joshua Heschel and Israel Miller and new committees to confront each new audience consisted of “a thousand and others. Milton Berle served as held no reunions of former members, thus making it difficult for historians to find some whose children would become crisis, and Rabinowitz had no trouble bookies, ex-prize fighters, gamblers, master of ceremonies. Musical num- them. Some Bergson activists stayed in touch with each other over the years, but famous, such as Naftali Carlebach making the necessary transitions. At jockeys, touts and all sorts of lawless bers were performed by Paul Robeson, others did not. Rabbi Baruch Rabinowitz was one of the latter. (father of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach), war’s end, the Emergency Committee and semi-lawless characters—and their Perry Como, the Andrews Sisters, the When I sought to contact him for my research on the Bergson group, I found that Charles Kahane (father of Rabbi Meir to Save the Jewish People of Europe womenfolk.” An estimated $200,000 Xavier Cugat Band and the Count none of the surviving activists from the group knew where he lived, and none of the Kahane) and Isaac Lewin (father of converted itself into the American was raised that night. Basie Band, among others. major Jewish archival institutions could find a clue—in part because, unbeknownst League for a Free Palestine, and shifted A long list of celebrities backed The American League for a Free to me, he had shortened his name to “Robbins” and was living in quiet retirement in Nathan Lewin). the focus of its lobbying to the strug- Palestine enjoyed similar support a small town in Israel. The diligent efforts of Maryland podiatrist Gerald Falke, a The ads and rallies, followed by the Bergson’s work both during and after longtime member of Congregation B’nai Abraham, eventually led to contact with dramatic march of the rabbis, set the gle for Jewish statehood.