Daily Digest of Public Opinion on Jewish Matters

The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does indicate approval–Editor.]

The inauguration of a new movement in England intended to counter act Liberal Judaism is commented on by the “Jewish Chronicle” of London.

Writing in its issue of July 9, the paper declares regarding this movement ,which, we learn, has been initiated by Rabbi Victor Schonfeld:

“The movement Dr. Schonfeld describes is intended, so he tells us, to counter the progress of the ‘Liberal’ Jewish Movement; and although with that purpose we feel much sympathy, we cannot believe that the method proposed by Dr. Schonfeld will be effectual. The plan he has in mind is to challenge ‘liberalizing’ tendencies by strict orthodoxy of the unbending kind which is entirely disregardful of the needs and the facts of today, caring only for the precise letter of what came to be recognized, in other days and in utterly different circumstances as law. The human material which Dr. Schonfeld and his co-workers can alone hope will be influenced by such a movement and who will support it, in and by their lives, cannot in the nature of things be the sort of men and women who give countenance to ‘Liberal’ Judaism. Indeed, the plea of that section of our community, which is their strongest argument, is precisely the incompatibility of orthodoxy, as it is preached, with modern conditions. And they prove this by pointing to the many who profess and call themselves orthodox but who are yet completely unobservant of orthodoxy’s demands.”

ON KALENIN’S STATEMENT-PRO AND CON

The contention that if the Russian peasants are really hostile to the settlement of Jews on the land the Soviet government, which has always yielded to the peasants, will abandon the Jewish colonization plan, is made by “Dos Yiddishe Folk,” organ of the Zionist Organization of America, in an editorial of July 16 dealing with the recent statement of Kalenin, president of the Union of Soviet Republics.

“In view of past experience,” the paper writes, “we are afraid that in this matter too, the Soviet government will yield to the peasants. It was because of the peasants that the Soviet government abandoned Communism completely, and it is hard to believe that guns of the Red Army will be turned on the peasants in behalf of the Jewish colonization plan.”

Pointing out that Kalenin’s statement declares that the Soviet government endorses the attitude of the Jewish Communists who see in the Russian colonization plan a means of combating Zionism and Palestine colonization, “Dos Yiddishe Folk” further observes; “Hence, it appears that it is Russian politics and not Jewish interests that called the whole Crimen scheme into being! The statement has not revealed any great news to us, but Jewish public opinion will be grateful to Kalenin for playing open cards. The Jewish world will take his statement into consideration.”

An entirely different attitude is taken by the “Jewish World” of Philadelphia (July 1 issue). This paper discounts the fact of peasant dissatisfaction with Jewish colonization by drawing attention to the dissatisfaction with Zionism prevailing among Arabs in Palestine. “What great enterprise has not called forth dissatisfaction among one or another element?” the paper asks.

The “Jewish World” referring to last week’s cable report from Reuben Brainin, vice-president of the Zionist Organization, now in Russia, who declared the colonization work a success, says:

“What Brainin says are facts, while what one could deduce from Kalenin’s statement are merely commentaries. And it is important to differentiate between facts and commentaries in the matter of colonization. When it comes to facts, we must reckon with them, whether we like or not. The Joint Distribution Committee’s undertaking in Ukrainia and Crimea has succeeded. Brainin says, this cannot be denied. The prediction that the experiment would not succeed was a year ago the chief argument of the opponents of the plan; this argument must fall away.”