Reform Rabbi, ZOA Leader in Dispute over Criticism

Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn, past president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that he stands by the statement made by himself and CCAR president Rabbi David Polish that certain Zionist bodies “embrace America’s most reactionary politicians who would betray Israel overnight if it suited their purposes.” That statement, contained in a joint message by Rabbis Polish and Gittelsohn to the Reform rabbinical body’s 82nd annual convention in St. Louis last month, came under sharp attack here yesterday by Rabbi Joseph P. Sternstein, vice chairman of the Zionist Organization of America’s executive committee. Rabbi Sternstein claimed that these “invidious appraisals” were “utterly naive and lacking in responsibility.” Rabbi Gittelsohn, reached by telephone at his study in Boston, retorted that criticism was in the honored tradition of the Hebrew Prophets and must not be suppressed. Rabbi Polish is presently in Israel.

Sternstein called the Reform leaders’ remarks “distorted and myopia.” He told a meeting of his committee that “Zionists are not as quick to polarize individuals by the terms ‘liberal’ and ‘reactionary’–whatever these terms might mean today. For us,” he said, “the issue is not who is a liberal and who is reactionary. It is who is a friend of Israel and the Jewish people–tried, tested and true–and who is not. There is no need to apologize for the geopolitical reality which binds Israel and the United States. We are gratified by the assurances that America’s security interests coincide with Israel’s survival–for both serve the cause of world peace and freedom.” Rabbi Gittelsohn told the JTA, in response to that assertion, that ZOA leaders were making “a considerable effort” to dampen Jewish criticism of Nixon Administration policies in Southeast Asia on grounds that “we must not make the Administration angry” because of possible repercussions against Israel. Rejecting that attitude, the Reform leader declared. “We must criticize American policies in Asia as if there were no Israel while supporting Israel’s relationship with the U.S. as if there were no Asia.” Gittelsohn said that despite the ongoing crisis in the Middle East, “the kind of state that Israel will ultimately be is being determined right now. In the long run, Israel’s security will be assured more by adhering to the Prophetic ideals of Judaism than by trying to put them in the freezer.” The Reform rabbi contended that by the lights of the ZOA leaders, “Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos were ‘distorted’ and ‘myopic’ in their utterances.” “We are not modern-day Isaiah, nor do we have to apologize for our love and support of the State of Israel,” he said.

Rabbi Gittelsohn also complained that Rabbi Sternstein’s statement, released to the press yesterday, mentioned himself and Rabbi Polish by name while criticizing unrelated statements by a third American rabbi who Sternstein refrained from identifying. The third target of the ZOA leader apparently was Rabbi Arthur Hertzberg of Temple Emanuel, Englewood, N.J., a member of the Jewish Agency Executive presently in Israel. Last June 13 Rabbi Hertzberg accused Israeli political and religious leaders of “apathy and insensitivity” toward the existence of poverty in Israel.” Rabbi Sternstein labeled those remarks “unwarranted, unfounded and irresponsible.” He said they were made “without taking into account the extraordinary difficulties and complexities of its (Israel’s) immigration problems.” According to Sternstein, Israel “is striving mightily, in the midst of unprecedented defense expenditures, to solve these problems with justice and equity.” He added. “The pressure cooker of the ingathering of the exiles” cannot be “expected to produce palatable concoctions overnight.”