“There is no problem of dual or conflicting loyalty in the fact that the American Jewish young people are concerned with what is happening in Israel,” Rabbi Arthur J. Lelyveld, national director of B’nai D’rith Hillel Foundations, told the National Jewish Youth Conference today. Addressing the Conference’s annual assembly at Camp Wel-Met, Rabbi Lelyveld said:
“Our relationship to Israel is one which exists in an entirely different dimension from that of our relationship to our own country. Our relationship to America is one which we share with every other culture group and with every other citizen. It is one of loyalty to our native land and of pride in the humane democratic tradition which is itself the most successful expression which has ever been given our own Biblical ideals of democracy.
“On the other hand, our relationship to Israel is one of personal and group involvement in an idealistic venture which grows both out of Jewish history and faith. Because it is a state founded by our fellow Jews, we have a sense of kinship to Israel’s destiny. Our concern for Israel will never come in conflict with our loyalty to America, because of the linkage between spiritual values in the history of America and the history of Israel.”
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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.
