The Issue of Gush Emunim

The Gush Emunim movement is “championing a dangerously irreversible policy” toward the administered areas, Rabbi Saul Berman, of the Stern College for Women, told the 64th annual convention of Young Israel here. But he agreed with Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld, immediate past president of the Rabbinical Council of America, that Gush Emunim had matched Zionist feelings to action in its determination to oppose Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.

Rabbi Schonfeld also told the 600 delegates that the Gush Emunim policy was an American issue “because of the actions of the Secretary of State.” He argued that if Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger had not stopped Israeli forces during the Yom Kippur War, there would not have been a Gush Emunim. He said he supported Gush Emunim because it was the only group in Israel to oppose the wishes of Kissinger and “to tell him ‘no.'”

Herman Rosenbaum of New York, who was elected to a third term as president of the organization of Orthodox synagogues, challenged American Jewish critics of Israeli policy, denouncing Breira, an organization of American Jews which urges debate on that policy. Rosenbaum assailed “those who would criticize the government of Israel from the sanctuary of distant shores,” citing critics like those of Breira “who, 7000 miles away in safety and comfort, direct others.”

Rabbi Israel Miller, former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and former president of the American Zionist Federation, addressing one of the weekend sessions, urged the Young Israel movement to join the American Zionist Federation. But Rabbi Samuel Fink of Brooklyn said he doubted that the Young Israel membership would have any input in the AZF and suggested there might be “considered religious reasons” against joining the AZF.

Miller told the delegates that “at a time when the Zionist cause has come under increasing, concerted attack, it is important that all of us pull together in support of Israel and Zionism.” He said the AZF included groups representing a wide range of political beliefs and religious affiliations and added that “it is exactly to provide for the unity of such diverse groups and thus to strengthen our support for Israel, that the Federation exists.” The convention did not act on the proposal for affiliation.