Dr. Nahum Goldmann, President of the World Zionist Organization, declared today that American Jewry “must assume full responsibility with Israel and all other Jewish communities for the future of the Jewish people everywhere, including the future of Israel. “
Speaking at the Charter Day luncheon of the National Planning Conference of the Farband Labor Zionist Order, meeting here at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Dr. Goldmann told the 1,000 members and guests that American Jewry, “despite its generosity, its deep Jewish sentiments and its great potential resources, has not really begun to play its leading role in Jewish life. “
Asserting that the future of the Jewish people, more endangered by many external and internal factors than ever before, depended permanently on Israel and American Jewry, he said that the main support by American Jews for Israel and other Jewish communities “is mostly financial and the term used for this support–philanthropic–unique in Jewish life, is characteristic for this. ” However, he stressed, “the time has come when American Jewry must begin to take a hand in shaping the Jewish future, both politically and intellectually. “
To carry out its task, he told the luncheon guests, American Jewry must “forge the instruments for such an activity and change many of its traditional patterns and priorities, ” As a first step, he added, “organizationally, ” American Jewry must “democratize its life and organize itself. “
Dr. Goldmann suggested that the “ideal form” would be the creation throughout the United States of kehillahs, “as European Jewry had it and as many South American Jewries possess them now. ” However, he added, if this was impossible, “that at least a democratically constituted Jewish community council should have the real power and authority. “
PROPOSES CREATION OF A CENTRAL REPRESENTATIVE ORGAN OF U.S. JEWRY
He proposed the creation on the national level of “a new representative organ of American Jewry” and said that even if at the beginning it did not have “binding authority, ” then at least it should serve “as a common platform for exchanging views and establishing the guiding principles to common action. “
“Ideologically, philanthropy has to cede its predominant position” in American Jewish life “to education on which the future of American Jewry depends, ” he added. “Such education and cultural activity must be based on intimate spiritual and cultural ties with Israel as the new center of Jewish creativity today. Therefore the Hobraization of the Diaspora is a primary condition. “
All these tasks, he told the luncheon gathering, should be the essential program of “a real Zionist movement within American Jewry. ” He added that to implement such a program, Zionism must be united and ready to win a leading position in the communities which it does not possess today.
FARBAND TO ESTABLISH 15 NEW SCHOOLS; LAUDED BY KENNEDY
President Kennedy, in a message to the delegates, congratulated the Farband for supporting the principles of freedom and justice for all America citizens and lauded the Farband for promoting Jewish cultural and educational activities.
The delegates endorsed a proposal to establish at least five new Day Schools and 10 new afternoon schools in various American cities, thus enlarging the Farband’s present 53 afternoon schools and eight day schools, serving nearly 10,000 Jewish children in the United States and Canada. They also approved a proposal for creation of a social studies department in the 45-year-old Jewish Teachers Seminary and People’s University, which the Farband helped to found.
Louis Segal, general secretary of the Farband, reporting on the activities of the organization, said that in recent years the Farband has enrolled 4,000 new members who came to the United States as immigrants and that two branches of refugees from Cuba have been organized in 1962–one in New York and the other in Miami. He also reported the representations made by the Farband to the U.S. Government and to the ambassadors of Argentina, Uruguay and other Latin American countries in Washington, regarding the anti-Semitic violence that took place in those lands in 1962.
Meyer L. Brown, president of the Farband, called upon the organizations National Board of Directors to intensify the work on behalf of Israel and to strengthen their work on behalf of Jewish education in the United States. Mr. Brown reported that in the past year the members of branches of Farband raised more than $7,000,000 for Israeli purposes and for cultural, educational and communal work in the Unttes States and Canada.
The delegates adopted a resolution assailing the “continuing spate” of “trumped-up” trials against Soviet Jews “for alleged crimes against the state” and the imposition of long-term prison sentences and death penalties against them. They urged the Soviet authorities to extend to Soviet Jews the guarantees in the Soviet constitution of equal rights for all citizens and cultural rights for all nationality groups.
In another resolution, the delegates lauded the United States decision to sell Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Israel but they also expressed deep regret that the United States had refused to support resolutions asking the Arab states to negotiate for peace with Israel which were introduced by other member nations of the United Nations at the last two sessions of the General Assembly.
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.
