The Reader’s Forum

The editors reserve the right to excerpt all letters exceeding 250 words in length all letters must bear the name and address of the writer although not necessarily for publication.

To the Editor, Jewish Daily Bulletin:

I am one of the rabbis of the Central Conference who refused to endorse the resolution of Rabbi Israel for the following reasons:

(a) Practically all congregations in America consist of middle-class and capitalist Jews, and one cannot support Socialism in Palestine without endorsing it in America.

(b) No rabbi speaks as an individual, but rather is looked upon as the spokesman of his community. Surely 241 rabbis will be treated by our non-Jewish friends as the voice of Israel.

(c) I know too much about the Histadruth and their religious aspirations to suspect that they would encourage the Jewish faith in Palestine.

(d) I am a Revisionist since 1926 and attended the Second World Revisionist Conference and as a member of the presidium helped shape its program. I never remember anything that we discussed that had anything to do with Fascism.

(e) The Betar is merely a replica of the scout movement in America. As a rabbi I always supported the American scouts in spite of their brown uniforms. I am sure other rabbis did likewise. What may be good for America should also prove profitable for the Jewish people in Poland.

(f) In reference to social justice, I am sure that Rabbi Israel knows enough of Marxian theory to be able to distinguish between a philosophy of materialism and that of the Prophets to understand that the gulf is wide enough not to imply the same meaning.

(g) The class struggle is not necessarily the best method that will bring about social justice, and a knowledge of present-day conditions in Palestine may not prove to be very healthy under the circumstances.

Morris M. Rose,

Temple Sinai of Brooklyn.

Brooklyn, N. Y.

Feb. 7, 1935.