Hope for a united front in American Zionism has been hopelessly shattered, declared Abraham Goldberg, vice-president of the Zionist Organization of America, speaking before a meeting of the executive of the St. Louis Zionist region and the Jewish National Fund on the terms recently submitted by Justice Louis D. Brandeis under which he and his group would resume active participation in the Zionist movement.
Pointing out that Justice Brandeis still had time to call a conference of leaders of both factions to restore unity to American Zionism before the Cleveland convention in June, Mr. Goldberg expressed disappointment at the outcome of the negotiations with the Brandeis group.
Mr. Goldberg, who was an important factor in the 1921 convention that ousted the Brandeis group, declared that the Zionist Organization’s peace emissaries consisted of those who were sympathetic to a restoration of the old leadership and demonstrated that the present Zionist administration seriously wanted a united front at this critical hour in Zionist history. These emissaries, Mr. Goldberg said, were flaunted with an ultimatum since the reply handed to them was simultaneously given to the press with no opportunity for deliberation left to the committee.
Asked what the Cleveland convention might do, Mr. Goldberg declared that “while the Brandeis memorandum will receive serious consideration, there is no doubt that such proposals are doomed at the very outset by the nature of the unequivocal attitude taken by the Brandeis group. Peace is still possible. It is up to Justice Brandeis himself to take the lead in halting strife. Both sides must agree; for neither is there victory or defeat.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
