The American leaders of the non-Zionist and Zionist groups who participated in the creation of the Joint Jewish Agency for Palestine, joined in forecasting a bright future for the Palestine work in statements they issued before their departure from Zurich.
Louis Marshall, Dr. Lee K. Frankel. Dr. Cyrus Adler, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, Morris Rothenberg and Judge William M. Lewis stated their views to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency correspondent.
Louis Marshall stated: “I am very satisfied with the results of the Council session. The Agency has been ushered in under most auspicious circumstances.”
SPLENDID BEGINNING FOR FINANCIAL CORPORATION MADE, DR. FRANKEL
“Apart from the great constructive achievements of the first meeting of the Agency Council, such as the ratification of the Constitution with few amendments after its adoption by the Zionist Congress and the approval of the $3,750,000 budget for Palestine, we, who came to the meeting as non-Zionists with the object of accomplishing the historic union, could not fail to be impressed with the great earnestness of our partners, the bearers of the ideal to which I referred in my address on the first day of the Agency Council session,” stated Dr. Lee K. Frankel.
“As my colleague on the Palestine Survey Commission, Oscar Wasserman, said, we were in no position to examine all the proposals in all their detail, lacking the necessary information which our Zionist associates accumulated during decades of work in behalf of Palestine. We approached all proposals with a strong desire to translate them into action without sacrificing anything of the spirit animating all those who worked for the reconstruction of the country.
“I am happy, and I know all our friends in the United States share this happiness, that the Agency constitution, while guaranteeing freedom of conscience, provides for the satisfaction of the religious requirements alongside the economic and cultural aims. A splendid beginning towards the financial corporation proposed by me were the subscriptions of half a million dollars each by Felix M. Warburg and Lord Melchett, whose example I hope will be followed by many others,” Dr. Frankel declared.
RABBI SILVER VOICES CRITICAL VIEW OF ZIONIST CONGRESS, AMERICAN DELEGATION LOST PRESTIGE
Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver declared: “There were great Congresses, but this was not one of them. Seldom was a Congress faced with graver issues, but it failed to rise to the intellectual and spiritual exigencies of the hour. The Congress had its dramatic moments and in its early stages was noble and dignified, but it slowly degenerated into a tedious spectacle of political pettifogging, obstructionism and verbiage. The manner in which the Zionist Executive was finally elected fairly approximated a moral debacle. The Congress suffers from excessive fractionalism, from cumbersome parliamentary procedure, which is adopted for continental congresses sessioning for months at a time, but is altogether unsuited for the Zionist Congress which can meet only for a short time. It is also handicapped by the presence in its midst of too many leaders, brilliant people who all wish to be spokesmen. They are argumentative in the extreme and amazingly longwinded.
“There were not new faces at the Congress, It was not a Congress of youth, freshness and enthusiasm, but of wearied men, long in service, who have become set, ingrown and pedestrian. The Congress gave one the impression of an army long on the march, exhausted but marching on because it could not stop. Occasionally a flame leaped out, occasionally a great word was uttered, but through the long dreary days and nights one had to fight against an overpowering sense of disillusionment.
“The coming of the non-Zionists to Zurich was like the coming of a fresh breath of spring. One’s hopes were revived at the sight of new faces, the sound of new voices, at evidences of trained leadership with real competence, scope and vision. The sessions of the Agency did far greater justice to the Palestine cause than the Congree. There was an element of greatness about them. Men rose to the occasion of an heroic moment and evoked an heroic response.
“I still regard the Congress as an indispensable institution of the Zionist movement.” Rabbi Silver continued. “It served as the magnificent tribunal of our national aspirations for over thirty years, but a new, and in a sense rival, institution has now come into existence, namely, the Agency Council. If the Congress is to retain its position of prestige and authority in Jewish life, it must radically re-orientate itself, do something quite drastic and thoroughgoing.
“The American Zionist delegation played a very insignificant role at the Congress and the Council. It was numerically weak and poorly led and was simply ignored. This Congress was a dead disillusionment to those recalling the position of authority which the American delegation held at previous Congresses. The coming to Zurich of the American non-Zionists, men of national and international reputations, of acknowledged ability and leadership completed the eclipse of the Zionist delegation. One wonders whether the same situation will not be repeated in America.
“The Agency has begun most auspiciously, but the results alone will demonstrate whether it will realize the high hopes it has inspired. I believe the Agency will in a very large measure succeed,” Rabbi Silver concluded.
JUDAISM GIVEN DEFINITE PLACE IN PALESTINE REBUILDING, DR. ADLER
Dr. Cyrus Adler said: “The creation of the Agency was a most impressive occasion. The meeting was the most representative assembly of Jews in modern times and perhaps in a longer period. If entered into with goodwill, the assembly will spell a great advantage for Palestine and promote unity in Israel.
“It was a source of great gratification to me that Judaism was given a definite place in the rebuilding of the Holy Land, although the constitution of the Agency very properly guarantees liberty of conscience.”
OPPOSITION FEARS DISPELLED, MORRIS ROTHENBERG
Morris Rothenberg, member of the praesidium of the Agency Council, who represented the Zionist Executive in the negotiations in America with the non-Zionist leaders stated: “The great fear the Zionists had that the Zionist Organization, with its accumulated experience of thirty years, would be destroyed by the amalgamation was largely removed through the first contacts with the non-Zionists in Zurich, when they showed full understanding that the values created must not be destroyed and the Palestine cause can be advanced by the non-Zionists adding to what the Zionists created.
“In all the committees established to promote the joint work, the Zionist forces are fully represented. Even the opposition seems much less apprehensive regarding the workability of the schemes. The Agency augurs a new era in the work in behalf of Palestine.
“My estimation of the Congress was that it was impressive, dignified and on a high cultural level, unequalled by any Congress I previously attended, demonstrating that as a parliament it is comparable to the best legislative body in the world.”
FACTOR FOR UNITY IN AMERICA, JUDGE LEWIS
Judge William M. Lewis stated: “We return to America fortified by the alliance which was solemnly concluded on August 15th with the so-called non-Zionists. Rarely in Jewish history was so great a scene so appropriately enacted. The signatures upon the Agency pact of Dr. Weizmann and Nahum Sokolow on the Zionist side and representatives of numerous countries on
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the other side are symbols of the great unity achieved, to which I had the honor to refer in a few remarks when speaking for America in the discussion preceding the adoption of the constitution. I pointed out that the Agency consummation obliterates the one factor which divided American Jewry, cementing an alliance in behalf of Palestine which will redound to the glory of all Israel.”
AGENCY BEGINS NEW CHAPTER IN JEWISH HISTORY, RABBI SCHULMAN
Rabbi Samuel Schulman, in a sermon Saturday before Congregation Emanu-El, New York, termed the Agency Council sessions “the beginning of a new chapter in Jewish history.”
“For a generation these two forces of Reform Judaism and Zionism were opposed to each other,” said Rabbi Schulman. “Today the warfare is at an end. Only those who are slaves of words will indulge in cheap criticisms. Those who know how to distinguish between the fundamental truths of Judaism and the destiny of the Jewish people on the one hand and the words in which from generation to generation these may be expressed, will rejoice at what has taken place in Zurich.
“History is a series of compromises. A new creation is always the making of a new equilibrium of spiritual forces. The two opposing philosophies of Jewish life will continue. Truth cannot be compromised.
“We have to deal with accomplished facts. Great Britain is the mandatory of Palestine. Under the auspices of the mandatory, opportunity is offered for Jews who wish to go to Palestine, or who must go to Palestine, to create for themselves a new, free and happy communal life.
“The practical meaning of the creation of the Agency is this: the Zionists came to the conclusion that they cannot build up Palestine merely as a party in Israel; the non-Zionists have come to the conclusion that they cannot afford to stand coldly aloof from a movement which, if made successful by the united energies of Israel, promises a redemption for the body and a renaissance for the soul of so many in Israel.
“We shall therefore in the future agree to differ. No one expects the Zionistic party to give up its nationalism. Certainly those who opposed Zionism for thirty years have not changed an iota in their opposition to the nationalistic interpretation of Judaism for which Zionism stands. Time will tell as to whose ideal is superior. In the meantime we shall work together, shoulder to shoulder, without any reservation, to make possible an increased Jewish immigration to Palestine and an increased development of the possibilities of Palestine for the Jew.”
Rabbi Adolph Hollander terminated his six years’ services as spiritual head of the Sons of Israel Synagogue, Binghamton, N. Y.
Rabbi L. Rosen of New Castle, Pa., will succeed Rabbi Hollander.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
