Lessing J. Rosenwald’s principled opposition to political Zionism remains unchanged despite a sympathetic and profound appreciation, gained during a recent visit to Israel, of the country’s problems and the character and integrity of its people. he declared in an address here this evening. Mr. Rosenwald, for many years first president of the American Council for Judaism and now chairman of the board, spoke at a meeting of the Council at the Plaza Hotel.
He paid tribute to the fact that Israel had offered “a haven of refuge for hundreds of thousands who could not have found such a place in any other part of the world,” to the spirit of sacrifice he observed on the part of the peple. “People,” he reported, “are courteous to each other and hospitable in the extreme to strangers. The ‘newcomers’ are acepted as a responsibility but not too willingly, and often as inferiors to the early settlers and the ‘sabras.’ Nevertheless, in time, they find their niche, shoulder their burdens-as do others – and in one way or another finally become integrated into the State.”
At the same time, Mr. Rosenwald had criticism for what he called the “isolationism” of Israel. “For them,” he observed, “the world is the boundaries of the Israeli borders. I found it difficult to explain how one could be enthusiastic about the State and disagree with Zionist ideology. To them, Jews who are in other parts of the world and who are in difficulty should receive no assistance other than to help them come to Israel–all else is temporizing.”
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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.
