Mizrachi Leader Replies to Charges of Ultra-orthodox Agudah

Rabbi Berlin, Accepting Resignation of Dr. Goldstein, Enumerates Reasons for Mizrachi Activity

The controversy between the Mizrachi, the Orthodox Zionist organization, and the Agudath Israel, which is seeking to establish an American branch, was dealt with in a letter from Rabbi Meyer Berlin, president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations.

Rabbi Goldstein, who was formerly a member of the Executive Committee of the Mizrachi, recently decided to join the Agudath Israel. The resignation of Rabbi Goldstein was accepted by the Mizrachi. His motives, however, were repudiated in Rabbi Berlin’s letter, in which he enumerated the differences between the Mizrachi and the Agudah and declared:

“The most important question for every orthodox Jew is: is it more proper and of more consequence to go with the Agudath Israel, which might do some work in Eretz Israel, but which is entirely excluded from the great Zionist political and economical sphere, which has no influence on the direction of the work and on the fundamentals of the new life? Shall one join the Agudath Israel which is able, at the most, to build up a new religious colony, but which allows the work of others to take its course, which suffers the children of the colonies and the chalutzim to be estranged from Judaism and which tolerates the opening of Jargon schools instead of Hebrew Schools, as it was already the case? Shall one join the Agudath Israel which is striving to create a breach among the Jews of Eretz Israel and which has put itself in one position with the left wing of Poale Zion, who are only too glad to see the Agudath Israel succeed in its efforts so that the Kehilath in Eretz Israel should be secular and divested of all religious appearance and substance?

“Or shall one join the Mizrachi Organization which not only is building Eretz Israel through thousands of its chalutzim and many colonies, but which has sometimes more and sometimes less in fluence on the work of the Zionist Organization through its direct and active participation in the Zionist Organization and the Zionist Congress which forms the life in Eretz Israel? Shall one join the Mizrachi which has already succeeded in getting control over one-third of all the schools maintained by the Zionist Organization in Eretz Israel, schools in which children are brought up in a strictly religious spirit, in which everything is taught in He brew and not in Jargon? Shall one join the Mizrachi through whose intervention the Zionist Organization and the Keren Hayesod have assigned money in the budget for the maintenance of Rabbouim and Shochtim and other religious necessities?

“Naturally it is much easier to be a member of the Agudath Israel where life is easy and where one may indulge himself and throw stones at others. It is harde to be a Mizrachi, who has to struggle always and struggle hard, because those who should join the Mizrachi and assist the Mizrachi in its struggle do not understand the Mizrachi and its aims. But that which is easy is not holy and one is not an orthodox Jew only because he evades a difficult task,” Rabbi Berlin concluded.

The Jewish Community Center building in Washington, D. C., erected at a cost of $400,000, will be dedicated on February 21.

The dedication will inaugurate a five-day campaign expected to start the center with a membership of 2,500. Justice Irving Lehman, of New York, president of the Jewish Wellare Board, will be a speaker at the dedication.

Morris Cafritz, general chairman of the fund drive, will lead the membership campaign.

The national significance of the Washington center was stressed by President Coolidge in his address at the cornerstone laying May 3, last year.