Rabbis Protest Against Use of Their Names by “american League for Free Palestine”

Forty-six American rabbis today protested against the use of their names in literature distributed by the American League for a Free Palestine, and denounced the League as “a denial of Jewish history and a perversion of the fundamental concept of the unity of the Jewish people and of Zionist aims.”

In a formal statement the forty-six rabbis pointed out that more than a year ago they had signed a proclamation which was circulated by the Committee for a Jewish Army, but that in a recent booklet published by the American League for a Free Palestine the proclamation is reprinted and their names listed as endorsers. “This gives the impression that those who endorsed the proclamation also endorse this new organization which is announced as another of the creations of the self styled ‘Hebrew Committee of National Liberation,’ whose membership is not named and the source of whose authority is a mystery.” the rabbis’ statement declared.

“We have noted with growing concern the various metamorphoses of this group from one paper organization to another. We regret their lack of cooperation with the duly constituted Zionist movement and with other national Jewish bodies in America, as well as their apparent efforts to undermine the very purposes for which the American Jewish Conference was brought into being. We protest against this use of our signatures as a definite and clear-cut distortion of our original intention. We demand that our names be withdrawn from this booklet.

“Moreover, we serve public notice that we do not authorize the use of our names in any future literature which may be published by the ‘Hebrew Committee of National Liberation’ and its various off-shoots–those already in existence, such as the Committee for a Jewish Army, the Emergency Committee to Save the Jews of Europe and the American League for a Free Palestine — and any that may be created in the future.” the statement said.