Rabbi Louis I. Newman Calls for Peace and Unity in Ranks of American-jewish Leaders Working for Pale

A call for peace and unity in the ranks of those American-Jewish leaders who are working for the upbuilding of a Jewish Palestine has been issued recently by Rabbi Louis I. Newman, writing in one of his syndicated articles, “Telling It in Gath.” Rabbi Newman sees the friends of Palestine endeavor in this country divided into three antagonistic groups, the non-Zionists of the Agency, the Brandeis-Mack and the Lipsky group. He mentions seven leaders, whom he regards as the “key-people” in American Zionism—Felix Warburg, Louis D. Brandeis, Stephen S. Wise, Julian W. Mack, Louis Lipsky, Bernard Flexner and Jacob de Haas.

“Would it not be a splendid day for world Israel if these seven men could sit down amicably at the conference table, resolve their differences, and agree upon the common denominator of their program?” asks Rabbi Newman. “Dissension within our ranks is suicidal. We are facing our adversaries at the bar of the nations: Great Britain, the Arabs and the Christian world, rapidly turning against the Zionist project. I have been told that my advocacy of consolidation is ‘ideally desirable, but practically impossible,’ human nature being what it is. I shall, however, refuse to be discouraged, though when I left the office of Louis Lipsky, I was profoundly depressed. Another public fight in the ranks of Palestine’s purported friends would cripple the movement even more tragically than now.

“It has been suggested that a great American convocation of all of Palestine’s friends be summoned; but if these ‘key-people’ cannot find a basis of mutuality at a private conference table, if necessary behind locked doors, the press excluded, what earthly purpose would a public convention serve?

“Perhaps it is better that the Brandeis-Mack group go its way on worthwhile economic plans, supported by private investors, quietly reached; perhaps it is better that the Agency plan its joint campaign, with monies for Eastern Europe and Palestine to be gathered in a single appeal, such as we advocated in the unhappy days of 1925-26; perhaps the Z. O. A. should continue to amuse itself with Zionist ‘Roll-calls’ and the like. The danger is, however, that the three major groups—the Agency, the Zionists and the Brandeis-Mack economic unit—tend to go off on cross-purposes. Barriers mountain-high separate the parties today, except in the recent rapproachment between Mr. Warburg and Justice Brandeis.

“I appeal to the friends of Palestine: ‘Come and let us reason together; let us have peace. Let the miserable warfare of the last ten years be forgotten; let us banish pride, fear and prejudice; let us trust each other; let us demonstrate how good and how pleasing it is for brethren to dwell together in unity; let us remember our heroic pioneers in Palestine rather than our own individualities; let us seek for that which will unite rather than divide us; let us seal a covenant of peace, in the spirit of mutual concession and good-will, on behalf of Zion that lies stricken.’

“Gentlemen, we appeal to you. Who will take the first step? Who will renew our drooping hopes by this dramatic symbol of comradeship and reunion in the broken cohorts of Palestine’s friends?”

Rabbi Newman says that when he discussed recently the matter of peace with Mr. Lipsky, he “found the door barred and locked firmer than ever against the welcoming of the Brandeis-Mack group into the leadership of the Z. O. A. Mr. Lipsky, though grayer and older by reason of his Zionist burdens, was as masterful, unyielding and uncompromising as ever. ‘The Zionist Organization,’ he said, ‘will rise and fall with the rise and fall of the Zionist movement.’ The key to Zionist reconstruction lies in the hands of Louis Lipsky at 111 Fifth Avenue. Perhaps the time has not yet come to speak as frankly and directly as I should like.”

According to Dr. Newman, it is Dr. Stephen S. Wise who “has it in his power to consolidate anew the Brandeis-Mack group, to effect a rapproachment with the Lipsky group, and to present a solid, united front on behalf of essential Zionism within the Agency itself.”