The endorsement of the labor Palestine movement, recently announced by Rabbi Edward L. Israel of Baltimore and carrying the signatures of 241 Reform rabbis, has aroused an unprecedented storm of discussion.
Rabbi Israel’s statement is not convincing. There was no justification for the rabbis to inject themselves into the Zionist party strife. If individual rabbis wish to join the Histadruth or any other faction of the Zionist party, they are certainly free to do so. But to throw the weight of the Central Conference of American Rabbis into the struggle of the Zionist parties is unfair in the extreme.
Rabbi Israel states that the Histadruth as an organization not only does not adopt an anti-religious attitude but is positively cooperative. The Histadruth is a member of the Second International, the philosophy underlying its party program is Marxian, and to deny that the Histadruth is anti-religious is indeed amazing or indicative of the utter incapacity of Rabbi Israel fully to appreciate the very character of the party with which he is associated.
The children who go to Histadruth schools march on Jewish holi-
The endorsement of the labor Palestine movement, recently announced by Rabbi Edward L. Israel of Baltimore and carrying the signatures of 241 Reform rabbis, has aroused an unprecedented storm of discussion.In adjoining columns are presented the latest phases of the controversy. Rabbi Israel, in a letter to the editor of The Jewish Daily Bulletin, defends and justifies the endorsement and at the same time attacks The Jewish Daily Bulletin for its editorial stand opposing it. Rabbi Israel’s letter is answered in another column by the editor.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
