Our Daily News Letter

(By Our Berlin Correspondent)

Opposition to the extension of the Jewish Agency to include non-Zionists, the demand that more emphasis be laid on the political aspects of Zionist activity and that the 15th Zionist Congress be convened speedily for the purpose of reorganizing the Zionist leadership, these are the outstanding points in the program adopted by the Zionist Opposition which has just held its conference here. Among these who attended the gathering were Dr. M. Soloweitschik, Dr. N. Goldmann, Dr. Jacob Klatzkin, Deputy Isaac Gruenbaum, Mr. Robert Stricker, Dr. Israel Waldmann, Dr. Emil Margulies, Dr. Kraemer and others.

The program formulated by the Zionist Opposition or, as it is known formally, the Union of Zionist Radicals, reads:

“The Union of Radical Zionists demands the restoration of the Zionist Organization as the bearer of the national renascence movement of the Jewish people by the nationalization of the people in the Diaspora and the creation of its national home in Palestine. The Union fights against the tendency which has become uppermost in recent years, to base Zionism upon purely economic activity in Palestine, which means to displace the political and cultural objects, Without the fulfilment of which there can be no establishment of the commonalty of the Jewish people. It demands the reintroduction of all the pivotal aims of the Jewish renascence movement into the programme of the Zionist work. The campaign for the nationalization and Hebraisation of Jewry in the Diaspora and in Palestine and for the gaining of the most important position in Jewish life must again be placed at the forefront of Zionist work and must not be subordinated to the gathering of funds. The conduct of the political activity for the upbuilding of Palestine and the safeguarding of the rights secured to the Jewish people in the Mandaate must remain in the hands of the Zionist Organization.

“A preliminary condition for this is the revival and the extension of the Zionist Organization by the strengthening of all its parts and organs, above all, by the creation of a strong central Executive and authoritative controlling bodies.

“This conception leads us to the following conclusions in regard to the various pivotal questions in the present-day position of Zionism:

1.Rejection of the policy of an understanding at any price with the non-Zionists; the taking up of the fight against assimilation in all countries; and complete liquidation of the present scheme for the extension of the Jewish Agency.

2. Conducting of a determined and active policy both in and outside Palestine for the full realization of the Jewish rights secured in the Mandate; extensive and systematic enlightenment of public opinion in all countries, especially in the Orient; development of social and cultural relations between the Jewish population of Palestine and the Arabs as the best preliminary condition for establishing a political understanding with the Arab world; extension of Jewish self-administration in Palestine in all its organs; setting up of an all-embracing political apparatus; and securing of a systematic continuity in the carrying on of our political work under the responsibility of the whole Executive.

3. Shaping the colonizational upbuilding in Palestine according to the ruling idea of the ultimate aim being the creation of a national commonalty of the Jewish people; laying down as the principles of the Jewish work the transformation of the Jewish people by the creation of a Jewish peasantry attached to The soil and a Jewish working-class rooted in productive activity; safeguarding the rights of the workers and the promition of their self-administrative bodies with their control by the organs of the Zionist Organization; preparation in the Diaspora of an immigrant element suitable for the upbuilding work; Hebraisation of the Yishub and the creation of conditions for the secured development of the liberal and secular forms of life and culture of Palestinian Jewry.

4. Renewal and revival of the Zionist Organization, opposition to the tendency towards its bureau-cratization, creation of a strong Executive on the basis of its collective responsibility of all departments of its activity, strengthening of the authority of the Actions Committee, subordination of the funds and of the financial institutions to the orgaus of the Zionist Organization, and grouping in internal Zionist affairs and at the Congress according to programmes and not according to territorial areas.”

This is followed by resolutions in which the present Zionist leadership is severely criticized and the convocation of the 15th Zionist Congress demanded.