Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, tonight opened the session of the Zionist Actions Committee–supreme Zionist body between World Zionist Congresses–with a repeated warning of the threat of Jewish assimilation in countries outside of Israel.
The situation of the Jewish people is “better than it has ever been before,” he said, and although there are still places where discrimination exists, today’s great problem in regard to the defense of Jewish rights has assumed a different character. “If the price that a Jew or a Jewish community must pay for equality is to lose Jewish identity, then no real equality has been achieved,” he stressed.
“Our main effort,” he stated, “must be directed not only toward achievement of rights for Jews as individual citizens in their respective countries, but also toward achieving their rights to live as Jews, to maintain their character, traditions and distinct entity.”
The threat of assimilation and disintegration as the “price of equality” is real, he maintained. He said it is “clearly apparent in North African countries,” while in other lands “it is more obscure.” “Having won the fight for equal rights as human beings,” he said, “we must now win these rights everywhere as Jews.”
The problem of greatest importance “on the external front,” said the Zionist leader, “is the position of the Jewish community in Eastern Europe, where the future and fate of 3,000,000 Jews are at stake. The problem is not the threat of persecution or physical danger, but the right–especially in the Soviet Union–of a legally- recognized nationality, of the Jewish minority, to enjoy equal rights regarding language, schools and all aspects of cultural and religious life.
“Without becoming involved in the general struggle between blocs, or in the cold war we must insist on the rights of Jews to live as Jews under a Communist regime just as we demand this right from other regimes.”
Outside Eastern Europe, Dr. Goldmann continued, the situation of the Jews no longer depends on the external situation but upon the Jewish communities themselves. “The gravest danger.” he said, “in the free countries is no longer anti-Semitism, pogroms, or discriminations, but the strength or weakness of the Jewish consciousness, the ability or inability to secure the Jewishness of the younger generation to overcome the terrible, silent and invisible danger of disintegration.” Today’s manifold Jewish efforts,” he stated, “must be concentrated on Jewish education and the strengthening of the cultural and religious life, This is the foremost of the Zionist movement’s tasks, second only to the task of helping Israel.”
Dwelling on the right of Jews to emigrate, as recognized in the Human Rights Charter, Dr. Goldmann said that this serious problem prevails in East European countries and in North Africa. He expressed appreciation to the governments of Poland and Rumania for allowing Jewish families to be reunited and said it was inconsiderate and morally wrong for some Jewish groups to accuse these countries of expelling their Jewish citizens.
At the same time he regretted the fact that emigration from Rumania has been discontinued for the time being and hoped that this is only an interruption, not a stoppage. He also expressed hope that Morocco will permit freedom of emigration, emphasizing that in many respects the Moroccan Government has fulfilled its assurances to treat the Jews as equal citizens.
Referring to proposals for the enlargement of the Jewish Agency Dr. Goldmann-stated: “If the Zionist movement pretends to represent the Jewish people in its relationship toward Israel, it must try to become truly representative, it cannot remain a closed corporation. I am convinced that there are millions of Jews whose convictions are no less firm than the convictions of the Zionists, and it is our task to bring in these groups and enable them to share our rights and duties.”
Dr. Goldmann said he was convinced that there are many important organizations in the United States and elsewhere that could be brought in as full members of the Zionist movement, but held that “for this, it is necessary to change the present structure, since the entire method of individual membership in the World Zionist Organization is no longer adequate.”
In the audience, as Dr. Goldmann spoke, were Israel’s Prime Minister David Ben Gurion–who was scheduled to speak later this evening–other members of Israel’s Cabinet, and leading members of Israel’s Parliament.
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