Not Much to Be Expected of Negotiations to Secure Agudist Participation in Jewish Agency: Warning Ag

An objective examination of the position will not reveal any ground for encouragement in the matter of the recent negotiations with Jewish Agency representatives in Berlin to secure the participation of the Agudath Israel in the Jewish Agency, the Agudist “Juedische Presse” here writes, on the basis of information received in leading Agudist circles.

There is little likelihood, it says, of the cultural work in Palestine, and above all, the school system, being taken out of the sphere of activity of the Jewish Agency, and being transferred to the Kenesseth Israel, in view of the increased burden of taxation that would impose upon the Palestine population.

We therefore consider it our duty, it declares, to warn public opinion against any optimism in regard to a successful conclusion of these negotiations.

On the other hand, the paper says, there is no ground for the fears expressed among the Agudist youth that co-operation with Zionist bodies may mean for the Agudah a surrender of its principles and of its uncompromising attitude on religious matters.

The second part of the Berlin negotiations, the “Juedische Presse” goes on, touched on the possibility of co-operation between the Agudah and the Jewish Agency in the political field. Such co-operation took place repeatedly in the course of the past eighteen months, it continues, especially in Palestine, insofar as the Political Executive of the Agudah, with the approval of the Pabbinical leaders, considered such co-operation as its duty in view of the critical political situation. It was strange, therefore, to the Agudist leaders to find the Agency representatives in the Berlin discussions considerably annoyed because the leaders of the Agudah had deemed it necessary by means of the publication of a memorandum which they had handed to the British Government to explain their stand on the present situation. There was no ground for such annoyance, since it is obvious that the Agudath Israel, as an independent organisation, with a world-conception contrary to that of Zionism, is under an obligation to cast also its own wishes and views into the scales at a moment of fateful its decision in respect to the shaping of the policy in Palestine. the representatives of the Jewish Agency at the Berlin discussions expressed a lively wish that the Agudah should place restrictions upon itself in matters of outside political representations, but their demand was categorically rejected by the Agudist representatives. What the Commission – without ratification, so far, by the Political Executive of the Agudah – did concede, is simply an obligation by the Agudath Israel, in view of the continuing difficult political situation, that for the present, it will undertake no independent outside political activity without first making a loyal attempt to reach an agreement with the Jewish Agency along the lines of common action. If the attempt does not succeed, the Political Executive of the Agudah is, of course, free to act independently as it finds advisable.