Zionist efforts to stimulate the emigration to Israel of Americans of Jewish faith was condemned today by delegates to the sixth annual conference of the American Council for Judaism. In a series of resolutions adopted at the closing of the three-day session, the Council termed “especially undemocratic” the Hechalutz campaign to increase the population of the state of Israel by creating a sense of insecurity among Jews in the United States.
“Even more vicious is the effort to deprive us of our most precious natural resources, our youth,” the resolution said. The Council charged that if the Hechalutz program were successful, “the lives of Jews in America would be simply a waiting period.”
Another resolution described as “unwarranted and undamocratic” the attempts by the National Community Relations Advisory Council and the American Jewish Committee to “restrain the Council from publicly expressing its views, especially in the general press.” Such action, the resolution continued, “is dangerously close to totalitarian efforts to silence opposition. So long as we act with dignity and speak the truth, we, as well as those whose opinions differ from ours, have every right to make our views known.”
The delegates expressed their dedication “to the universal insights which are the heart and soul of Judaism,” in the fields of politics, economics, international relations and in daily life. In taking their stand on the structure and policies of the United Jewish Appeal, the Council delegates reiterated their recognition of “the need to contribute generously to humanitarianism and philanthropic causes in Israel and elsewhere.” They noted that “the present structure of the U.J.A. and of many local fund-raising organizations is such that those who desire to support philanthropy are compelled also to contribute to Jewish nationalist causes, both in this country and abroad.”
The delegates stated that they acknowledged the difficulties in gaining a separation of humanitarian and political funds. They placed the responsibility on the leaders of the U.J.A. and the local funds. The resolution stated that “the recent resolution of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds calling for the establishment of an overall purely philanthropic fund for our needy co-religionists in Israel is a constructive step which we heartily commend.”
Lessing J. Rosenwald, who was re-elected to serve a seventh term as president of the Council, was presented with a plaque honoring him for having organized and directed the campaign to liberalize displaced persons legislation. Earlier, in a presidential address he sharply attacked both Zionists and non-Zionists.
“The Zionists,” he said, strive to order and to dominate the lives and institutions of American Jews. Some non-Zionist organizations theoretically opposed to Jewish nationalism fail to understand that the Zionists are engaged in a concerted campaign to segregate American Jews from their fellow-Americans by impesing on them separate secular culture,” he stated.
The Council president charged the Zionists with seeking to “indoctrinate American Jewish children with the secular national culture of Israel under the guise of “Jewish’ culture.” He asserted that there is “a creeping totalitarianism in the institutional life of American Jews,” and declared that “we have travelled a far distance down the road toward self-imposed ghettoism.” He reiterated that the Council considers American Jews as Americans of Jewish faith who want to be treated as individuals, like any other Americans.
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