Jakobovits Calls for Re-evaluation of Zionist Aspirations and a Return to Spiritual Values of Judais

Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits of the British Commonwealth has called for a re-evaluation of Zionist and Jewish aspirations and a return to the moral and spiritual values of Judaism, In an open letter to Premier Yitzhak Rabin on the occasion of the Jewish solidarity conference here, the British Chief Rabbi declared.

“Our internal propaganda must project the authentic Jewish teaching, empirically proved over the ages, that Jewish history does not operate simply in terms of military logistics or political equations and that the tortuous course of the Jewish experience, especially as related to the land of Israel, is determined primarily, not by capricious forces beyond our control but above all by the merit and spiritual fiber of our own people, otherwise we would have perished long ago.”

In that context, Jakobovits deplored “our spiritual starvation” which leaves most Jewish children complete strangers to Jewish thought, values and observance at a time when deep faith, idealism, self-discipline and pride in being Jewish “are absolutely vital in the armory of Jewish self-preservation,” He blamed both the religious establishment and the “rabid secularists” for this state of affairs.

Jakobovits also blamed alienation from Jewish tradition for Israel’s demographic and political problems. He contended that if the Jewish people had lived in strict accord with Jewish ethics on birth control and abortion, Israel would now number five million “including at least two million sabras who would have been raised without the colossal costs and problems involved in the transportation and absorption of immigrants amounting to but a small fraction of this number.”

He suggested similarly that Israelis should have practiced Jewish law by arousing the world’s conscience to the plight of the Palestinian refugees in the Arab states. “The moral and spiritual training of Israeli youth is just as vital as their military training,” Jakobovits said. Referring to the Jewish reaction to the recent anti-Zionist measures adopted by the UN, he observed that in great measure “we are preaching to the converted–and the helpless.”