Clarence L. Coleman, president of the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism, asserted here tonight that American Jews were becoming “increasingly conscious” that they and their institutions “have been skillfully engulfed by the Zionist political machine.”
He told the opening session of the Council’s 16th annual conference that American Jews, not having questioned the means by which their help to fellow-Jews was handled, supported a structure of “philanthropy and public action” the full implications of which were “for the first time, become visible. ” This was a reference to standing charges by the anti-Zionist organization that funds contributed through the United Jewish Appeal were used for political purposes.
He said that during the past year Jews and non-Jews in the United States had given many set-backs to Zionism but nevertheless “evidence abounds that Jewish life in the United States increasingly moves toward greater withdrawal from the mainstream of American life.”
“We may be certain that Zionism will intensify its efforts to sell itself publicly as ‘no longer political’, ” he added. “Whether it succeeds or not, the danger is that the self-segregating forms created by Zionism–labeled ‘Jewish culture,’ ‘Jewish survival’ and ‘Jewish philanthropy’–will be accepted without awareness that this is all ‘Jewish’ nationalism.”
He disclosed receipt of a message from President Eisenhower lauding the group for its “fine record, ” noting the organization’s work “in the fields of education and philanthropy.”
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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.
