The 12th annual conference of the American Council for Judaism opened here today with anti-Zionist speeches in which the support of American Jews for Israel’s request for arms from the United States was termed “pressure by American citizens committed to advancing the cause of foreign nationalism.” Principal speakers today were Lessing J. Rosenwald, chairman of the Board of the ACJ, and Modie Spiegel, general chairman of the ACJ conference.
President Eisenhower, in a message to the conference, lauded the Council for its contributions “to a better understanding of the cultural and moral and spiritual values of Judaism,” and said: “Tension and hostility in the Near East require now more than ever before the pursuance of policies based on genuine friendship for all of the peoples of the area. In our country’s effort to help remove the shadows of war from this historic region, a more widespread understanding of the traditions and beliefs that animate its people will assist Americans to follow with perseverance a right and proper course.”
In justifying the present U.S. policy on the Arab-Israel issue. Mr. Rosenwald stated: “The issue is that of the Israel-Zionist axis, exploiting universally recognized concern over the security of Israel’s population by exerting undue pressure upon the Government of the United States to accept the Israeli formula for meeting the human problem. Our Governmental representatives, speaking for Americans of Jewish as well as of other faiths, are attempting to work out a formula for stability in the Middle East which not only includes guarantees for the security of citizens of Israel but which also encompasses the interests and is predicated upon the national obligations of the United States in terms of world peace.
“The question for American Jews is whether they are prepared to agree to the good faith of the people in the Government of the United States and to support an approach which derives from American interests; or whether they are to be led and lectured to by the Israeli Ambassadors and Zionist adherents of Israel and intimidated by emotionalized slander into becoming a separatist bloc in American life pleading for an Israeli solution.”
Mr. Spiegel, who delivered the keynote address at the opening session, repudiated the charge that the American Council for Judaism is opposed to Israel. “All of us know that we of the Council have never had a quarrel with what we consider a normal state of Israel,” he stated. “We take issue with the American institutions based on the philosophy of Jewish nationalism, Zionism. This difference brought to a successful conclusion may well make the Council the best friend the State of Israel ever had.
“This has always been our position. It has been attacked by Zionists as anti-Israel because they are incapable of separating these two concepts. They simply refuse to understand that our rejection of the intrusion of Israeli nationalism into our lives does not mean hostility to the State of Israel. Because they fail to separate Judaism from Zionism they dare to charge us with anti-Semitism.”
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