The rejection of Zionism by Prime Minister David Ben Gurion is certain to create confusion and cause unnecessary pain among Zionists, Former Prime Minister Moshe Sharett told the International Ideological Conference at Hebrew University today.
Discarding the Zionist vision and “going to the people with the Bible,” as Mr. Ben Gurion has proposed, would not save Israel from such internal dangers as the belief among Israel’s youth that the establishment of the Jewish State was the ultimate goal, Mr. Sharett declared. He asserted that on the contrary, the Bible alone with a denial of other values might make the danger worse.
Dr. Nahum Goldmann, world Zionist leader, also expressed doubts about Mr. Ben Gurion’s “naive conception, “adding that “Bible-punching” was not a political programs “Although we are accustomed to paradoxical statements from the Prime Minister, he might have been a little more cautious this time, ” Dr. Goldmann said when he took part in the debate which followed the reading of papers by delegates from a number of countries.
“If Premier Ben Gurion, the super-Zionist and arch-critic of the Diaspora, dislikes many Zionists, why doesn’t he tell them they are bad Zionists, instead of rejecting the entire movement?” Dr. Goldmann exclaimed.
Mrs. Golda Meir, Israeli Foreign Minister, said “Jewish youth sing-songing about the Negev in New York and Boston will not build up our wastelands. ” Declaring that Jews in the free world have no right to remain “long-distance friends” of Israel, she added: “We cannot become reconciled to the idea that only a small minority of world Jewry will live in Israel.”
Dr. Mordecai Kaplan of New York, founder of the Jewish Reconstructionist movement, urged the conference to undertake the task of persuading the leaders of the Zionist movement to concentrate not only on Israel’s security but also on the existence and unity of the Jewish people everywhere. He said that the Zionist leadership must be concerned with the rejuvenation of the Jewish spiritual heritage as the binding factor for all Jewish communities outside of Israel.
The achievements of Zionism to date represent only half of the goal, he said, and halting of Zionist endeavors at this point might both cancel out the accomplishments and endanger the existence of the Jewish people. He warned it would be a tragic mistake to assume that non-Israeli Jews would go to Israel on the basis of a decision there was no hope for the future of Judaism in their countries of residence. He said alarmist statements from Zionists to that effect would hinder rather than help prospects of immigration from the United States.
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.
