UNITY in DISPERSION Established a Separate Body
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UNITY IN DISPERSION unity dispersion a history of the world gewish congress NEW YORK WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS 1 948 w COPYRIGHT 1948 BY THE WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS All Rights Reserved PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA NEW YORK, N. Y. PREFACE This volume is an attempt to give a candid answer to the summons of history. On June 27, 1948, almost twelve years after its constituent meeting, the second session of the World Jewish Congress will bring together in Montreux Jewish community leaders from the four corners of the earth. This survey seeks to render an account of what the Congress has labored to achieve in the momentous interval. That this chronicle should be the first comprehensive report on the Congress doings, when stories of lesser organizations crowd the shelves of libraries, is in itself an illustration of the eventfulness of the period to which it is dedicated and the relentless pressure of the events upon the Congress. A time of continual emergency and inescapable duties left no leisure for the task of the historian. The obligation to bear witness could not be delayed any longer. On the eve of a new epoch in Jewish history, it was keenly felt that the experiences not only of the Congress but also of its predecessor, the Comité des Délégations Juives, ought to be com- mitted to print. The realities of Jewish life are rapidly shifting before our very eyes, and soon a new generation will arise which knows not our problems and to which many of our controversies will be incomprehensible. Under the impact of the tragically altered demographic constitution of our people and its changed and chang- ing geographic distribution, all components of the Jewish question in the Diaspora are being reshuffled and reshaped. A new leaf has been turned over in the relations between the varoius Jewish ideological camps, while the proclamation of the State of Israël deeply affects and colors all aspects of Jewish life everywhere. For the last thirty years the activities of the Comité des Délégations and the Congress have been woven into the woof and warp of Jewish history and their record cannot be written down without Jewish history being written at the same time. That is why this is a very unequal account. Many endeavors of the Congress, its branches and affiliates were left out. It was considered preferable to concentrate on the major trends in the complex developments of the era as well as on the general phi- losophy of the Congress and the particular ideas that guided it in its actions and in its departures from views held by others. In no other field have the victories of the Congress been so complete as in the ideological. The fundamental community of fate of Jews everywhere and the distinctiveness of the Jewish posi- tion have been universally admitted by all who are active in Jewish public affairs. The isolationist attitude of leading Jewish groups, the method of secrecy in dealing with the Jewish question, the cloak of anonymity thrown over matters specifically Jewish —all these are essentially things of the past. However, the dif- ferences of opinion of this recent past had to be told, since they were the rock on which foundered many efforts to save Jews or to remedy their distress. Topics have been expatiated upon which no longer have any bearing upon the Jewish situation. Still they had to be ex- pounded since they were for many years the bitter bread of our daily life. It was felt that this book should essay to be of lasting service to the student of Jewish problems of the last thirty years. Were they too sketchily drawn, they would in their complexity be unintelligible to the public worker of the future. An attempt was also made to render here and there some of the feeling of torment and frustration that often accompanied the uphill fight of the World Jewish Congress amid a Gentile world frequently callous and deliberately unhelpful, and a Jewish world assailed with apocalyptic issues of which it sometimes failed to grasp the profound meaning and implications. However, it was ־also emphasized that in the long run the enterprise has been re warding. The organization of a voluntary, legitimate, central authority in Jewish public life and the elimination of the irresponsiblity rampant in our midst are still of overriding importance. It does not depend primarily upon us whether our various aims will be achieved. Our position is to a large extent contingent upon the state of humanity and in particular upon the relative strength of the various powers and ideologies which are at grips in the battle for a new world order. But our own preparedness, the state of our leadership, and our ability to muster the necessary forces in times of emergency, — these depend entirely upon us. No one can give us these things, and no one can take them away from us. An excursion even into a cruel past has the paradoxical virtue of giving one some courage and even comfort. The trials of bygone days and the manner in which they were overcome yield a message of hope. We are reminded that there is a time to kill and a time to heal; that the things that are have been, and the things that have been will be, and all things are full of labor. Again and again, during the thirty centuries of Jewish history, Jewish com- munities have been decimated only to rise again within the life- time of a generation, with new vigor and creative activity. * * * This volume is a composite one. Julius S. Fischer, Dmitri Gawronsky, Anatole Goldstein, and Gerard Jacoby of the Institute, and Oscar Karbach and Nehemiah Robinson of the Political De- partment, have in many ways laid the groundwork for it. Much is based on reports and papers of the various departments of the Congress — Cultural, Organizational, Political, and Relief — and of the Institute of Jewish Affairs. The Congress Digest, edited by Greta Beigel, has been a precious source of information. Oscar Karbach, Jacob Lestschinsky and Nehemiah Robinson have, in addition, contributed their wide knowledge and judicious advice in connection with various aspects of the book. Maximilian Hurwitz has been a most competent, sagacious, and indefatigable editor. Facts spread over such an extended period of time would have been difficult to gather without the skill of the staff of the Archives Di- vision, composed of Elizabeth Maier, Erich Maier, and Ida Tumarkin. Special gratitude for her most valuable aid is due to my assistant, Marie Levy. A. LEON KUBOWITZKI TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE, by A. Leon Kubowitzki 1 PART ONE ORIGINS AND BEGINNINGS ORIGINS AND BEGINNINGS 9 PART TWO THE CONSTITUENT SESSION THE CONSTITUENT SESSION OF THE WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS 45 PART THREE THE PRE-WAR PERIOD CHAPTER I CONSOLIDATION OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL FRAMEWORK 77 CHAPTER II THE FIGHT AGAINST THE SPREADING ANTI-JEWISH ONSLAUGHT 83 CHAPTER III ECONOMIC RESISTANCE 103 CHAPTER IV THE REFUGEE QUESTION Ill PART FOUR THE WAR OF EXTERMINATION CHAPTER I THE CONGRESS ADAPTS ITS STRUCTURE TO THE EMERGENCY 121 CHAPTER II RESEARCH IN CONTEMPORARY JEWISH LIFE 134 TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER III RESCUE ATTEMPTS 155 CHAPTER IV RELIEF INTEGRATED INTO CONGRESS PROGRAM 197 CHAPTER V BEGINNINGS OF LEGAL REHABILITATION 210 CHAPTER VI THE ATLANTIC CITY WAR EMERGENCY CONFERENCE 221 PART FIVE LIQUIDATION OF THE WAR CHAPTER I FIGHT AGAINST ANONYMITY* 239 CHAPTER II PEACE TREATIES WITH THE SATELLITES 248 CHAPTER III THE TRIAL OF MAJOR GERMAN WAR CRIMINALS 261 CHAPTER IV INDEMNIFICATION AND REPARATIONS 268 CHAPTER V POSTWAR RELIEF ACTIVITIES 291 PART SIX THE CHANGED JEWISH WORLD CHAPTER I THE CONGRESS AND THE UNITED NATIONS 311 CHAPTER II POLITICAL WATCHFULNESS 335 CHAPTER III THE CONGRESS ENTERS THE REALM OF CULTURE AND EDUCATION 355 CHAPTER IV ENCOMPASSING THE GLOBE 365 PART ONE ORIGINS AND BEGINNINGS ORIGINS AND BEGINNINGS THE WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS as it stands today might be defined as one of the stages in the organization of the Jewish people in the Diaspora, and as the historical result of two trends in the communal history of the Jewish dispersion: one, interterritorial cooperation of the various communities; the other, the self-asser- tion of the organized community as against an oligarchy of in- fluential citizens. INTERTERRITORIAL COOPERATION There are early records of interterritorial cooperation among Jewish communities. The Community of Rome was often called upon to intervene with the Holy See in behalf of Jews persecuted elsewhere, and it granted its hospitality and diplomatic support to deputations from other communities. Problems of relief frequently resulted in joint action by several communities or in assistance from more prosperous Jewries to needy ones. Intercommunal medi- ation was often resorted to for the settlement of serious local con- flicts. Early chroniclers also tell of regional and interterritorial con- ferences and synods devoted not only to religious and legal matters, but also to political, organizational, and relief questions. Most of these gatherings took place with the formal permission of the authorities; some were even called by the authorities, mainly for fiscal purposes. Later these meetings aroused Gentile suspicions, and Italian and German conferences were discouraged until the emancipation era. In Poland, various attempts at intercommunal collaboration evolved into the Council of Four Lands ( Vaad Arba Aratzot), composed of representatives from Lesser Poland, Greater Poland, Red Russia, and Lithuania. Later Lithuania seceded and 9 10 UNITY IN DISPERSION established a separate body. She was usually replaced in the Coun- cil of Four Lands by Volhynia. The decline of these councils be- gan with the Cossack massacres of 1648. Relief problems brought about interterritorial action after many an emergency, such as the expulsion from Spain and the carnage of 1648, particularly in the work of the redemption of Jewish captives, which was considered a paramount duty.