Goldmann Says U.S. Press Distorted Ben-gurion’s Speech on ‘godlessness’

Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, today read out at the World Zionist Congress a statement in which he declared that Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion had been quoted out of context in reports in the American press of his address last week, which provoked much criticism on the part of American Jewish organizations.

Dr. Goldmann strongly deplored the misinterpretation of the passage in Mr. Ben-Gurion’s speech referring to “godlessness” of Jews who do not emigrate to Israel. He declared that the interpretation given was totally unwarranted by the speech as a whole, and that the Prime Minister, discussing immigration to Israel, had mentioned in passing that Orthodox Jews must realize there are religious commandments which can only be fulfilled in Israel.

“It was clear to all of us, and especially it was emphasized by the Prime Minister, that only a minority of Jews were considered governed by this approach, “Dr. Goldmann said. “It was clear to the audience that there was no intention on the Prime Minister’s part to ascribe godlessness to those Jews who do not emigrate to Israel or to Jewry outside of Israel generally.”

Dr. Goldmann also bitterly deplored the attitude of American Jewish leaders who reacted with “violent protests” which ascribed to the Prime Minister, without justification, statements which were not justified by the address as a whole. He said that the speech had been distorted by two New York newspapers, adding that the distortions had resulted from misquotation but by making one phrase, selected from a lengthy speech, appear as the principal content of the speech.

RELIGIOUS ZIONISTS, HADASSAH FIND NO FAULT WITH BEN-GURION’S VIEWS

Rabbi Bernard Bergmann, president of the Religious Zionists of America, also defended Mr. Ben-Gurion from the criticisms voiced by other Jewish leaders in the United States. The Mizrachi leader, who is one of the American delegates to the World Zionist Congress, decried “the fashion in which Mr. Ben-Gurion was attacked” by Jewish organizations in New York. He said that the remark made by Mr. Ben-Gurion, that no religious Jew can fulfill the whole Torah when residing outside of Israel, did not originate with the Israel Prime Minister, but that he merely quoted “the dicta of our sages.”

Hadassah issued a statement here expressing surprise that the Prime Minister’s remarks had caused such excitement and misunderstanding.” It caused no uneasiness or disturbance among the delegations, ” the Hadassah statement added. “The quotation was a symbolic and mystic expression of the everlasting connection of the Jewish people with Israel, and was not to be taken literally. Nor was it so taken by the large audience which heard it.”

Before the controversy over the speech developed, such American Zionist leaders as Dr. Emanuel Neumann and Mrs. Rose Halprin described it as”restrained, ” and a good augury for future relations, a reaction which strengthened indications that the Prime Minister had been quoted out of context and thus aroused the ire of a wide variety of American Jewish leaders.

Label A. Katz, president of B’nai B’rith, paid tribute, at a Congress session, to the historic role of the Zionist movement. Speaking on the question of the relationships of Israel and non-Israeli Jewish communities, Mr. Katz remarked that “the concept of God cannot be confined in time and space to any community” and that to do otherwise “world seriously negate” the 2, 000 years of the Jewish heritage outside of Israel.