Text of Stand on Elections

The following is the text of the part of Dr. Cy#us Adler’s report stating the position of the American Jewish Committee toward the proposed World Jewish Congress and the project for national elections to an enlarged American Jewish Congress:

The year 1934 marked the 280th anniversary of the beginnings of the Jewish community in the United States. Even prior to the Declaration of Independence the Jewish settlers in the original thirteen colonies organized themselves to carry out religious, educational and charitable work.

With the definite establishment of the United States as an independent nation, the gradual enlargement of the territory and the inflow of immigrants to the United States from various parts of the world, the Jewish community took on a larger form and these units in the different cities and states commenced to form national organizations to further their particular interests.

These organizations were voluntary; they were created by people most interested in a particular branch of Jewish activity; they chose their own representatives and adopted their own policies.

In times of emergency, conferences between these organizations were held, united action secured and the result was usually attained.

PLEBISCITE ATTEMPT ATTACKS INSTITUTIONS

A plebiscite of all the Jews in the United States above the age of eighteen, for which agitation is now astir, is a direct attempt, through propaganda, to destroy or minimize the institutions which the Jews of America have themselves created over a long period of years for all sorts of worthy purposes responding to the needs of the American Jewish community.

If this were not so, and if this had not on a previous occasion, when there was a plebiscite, been the purpose of the American Jewish Congress, the securing of a common council through a conference derived from representatives of the existing organizations would have been all that was required.

Just as this attempt was made on a previous occasion during the emergency created by the World War, the disaster to the Jews in Germany has again been employed as the occasion to recreate an organization through a plebiscite, direct voting, a method which up to this time has only been employed by Jews, like our American citizens, for the purpose of electing their representatives in Congress, expressing their preference for President and Vice-President in the Electoral College, and choosing their state, county and municipal officials.

RESULTANT CONFUSION SEEN UNFAVORABLE

It must be clear to anyone who will reflect that the creation of a general electoral machinery by the Jews of the United States for the purpose of establishing a Congress is bound to bring about in the minds of our fellow citizens a confusion which can only be unfavorable to the Jewish community, whereas there is not a single object that will be attained by the creation of such an organization based upon a plebiscite that cannot now actually be reached under the existing organizations which the Jews in America have established.

We are told that all this is proposed in the name of democracy, as though this were a new concept to Jews. Any Jew who has ever taken part in the organization or conduct of a synagogue or a lodge, or any of the numerous organization which were built up, can testify that all these organizations are democratically organized and represent the will of the people who are interested in them and who support them. The synagogue, the most ancient existing Jewish institution, has been democratic from its inception thousands of years ago.

The real question, therefore, is whether the Jews of America in emergencies shall speak through bodies that represent all their existing institutions, or whether they shall speak through a plebiscite from which a large part of the community, which has been specifically engaged in the proper and necessary work of the Jewish community, would abstain and ought to abstain.

MORE STRONGLY APPLICABLE TO INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS

These considerations, which in our opinion make a plebiscite for an American Jewish Congress unwise, apply with infinitely greater force to the establishment of the World Jewish Congress or any other form of international Jewish organization with which the plebiscite was initially and is apparently still bound up.

A conference held at Geneva, Switzerland, in August, 1932, adopted a resolution calling for the establishment of a World Jewish Congress, in which the object of the proposed Congress was stated to be:

“This World Congress, based on the conception of the Jewish people as a unified national organism (Volksorganismus), should be a ligitimate representation, authorized and in duty bound to deal with all questions of Jewish life, and to represent the Jewish people to the outside world, in a struggle for its civil and national rights.”

This resolution was confirmed in all details by the conference which met in 1933 and in 1934.

It was further amplified by statements of the leading proponents of the World Jewish Congress, who declared:

“It should … create a truly legitimate, unified representation of the Jewish people, which will have the right to speak in the name of the sixteen million Jews, to the nations and the governments of the world … There is only one possible basis for the World Congress, the idea of Jewish Nationhood (Volksthum) … The Jewish World Congress will be sovereign or it will not succeed, and if it will be sovereign, then it will deal with the totality of Jewish questions, the problems of inner Jewish life, the representation before the nations of the world, the struggle against the foes of the Jewish people.”

We share the feeling of those who, alarmed by the tragic fate that has befallen the Jews of Germany, and the baneful influence in other countries of Nazi policies, urge that Jews everywhere take counsel with one another with a view to finding effective measures to defend themselves against the menace which threatens their very existence.

But to take such counsel, to confer and exchange views is only the proximate purpose of the proposed World Congress.

It is clear from the statements quoted that the Congress is intended to be a permanent parliament, the deputies of which, elected by a machinery which is associated with representative government of political states, are to be authorized to deal with all matters affecting Jews in any and every country of the globe; and to negotiate with governments on matters affecting Jewish citizens.

DANGER TO STATUS AS CITIZENS TOLD

While it cannot serve any useful purpose which is not now being served by existing volutary Jewish agencies in each country, the proposed World Jewish Congress can only endanger the status of the Jews in the countries of which they are citizens. As citizens, Jews recognize only the authority of the parliament of the country in which they live.

A Jewish parliament would give aid and comfort to those who promote hostility to the Jews on the ground of alleged international solidarity and super-loyalty. It would sow doubts in the minds of our fellow-citizens in all countries as to the precise status of the Jew as citizens.

These dangerous consequences will follow, although the Congress will in fact be not representative of all the Jews, and will have no power to enforce its decisions even upon those individuals who vote for its representatives, and who, by so doing, are implying the acceptance of an obligation to an extra-national authority.

These consequences are inevitable, although in practice the Congress can be nothing more than a platform for the making of speeches and a convocation for the passage of resolutions.

SPECIAL PROBLEMS FACING JEWS SIMULTANEOUSLY

There have always been, and there are particularly today, special problems facing the Jews of all countries simultaneously. But, owing to the differences in the condition of the Jews of various countries, and in the traditions and customs of these countries, the manifestations of these problems differ materially in each land from the manifestations in other lands.

It is clear, therefore, that the Jews of each country are in the best position to understand and meet their own problems, without the assistance of an international agency which could not possibly understand the local situations.

The Committee believes that it is at times useful for the accredited representatives of organizations of different countries to meet for an interchange of views and information. The Committee has participated in such conferences, and is prepared to do so at future meetings when, in its opinion, they appear desirable.

The American Jewish Committee holds it to be self-evident that the Jews of the United States have here established a permanent home for themselves and their children, have acquired the rights and assumed the correlative duties of American citizenship, and recognize their unqualified allegiance to this country which they love and cherish and of whose citizens they regard themselves as a loyal and integral part.

The Committee believes that as American citizens, Jews have the right, individually or associated in groups, to approach the government of the United States and solicit its good offices in behalf of the betterment of the lot of oppressed Jews in other lands.

PROJECT CANNOT ACHIEVE ANY HELPFUL RESULTS

The Committee does not believe, however, that it is consistent with these principles for them to associate themselves with the citizens of other countries in creating an international body which “will have the right to speak in the name of the sixteen million Jews to the nations and the governments of the world.”

The Committee believes that, animated by their love of country, and their devotion to the highest conception of patriotism, American Jews will recognize the menace to their status inherent in the proposed World Congress and will declare their opposition to it.

A firm and unequivocal refusal to have any part in such a movement either directly or indirectly, may persuade those who are promoting it to withdraw from a proposed course of action which can achieve no helpful results, but which is freightened with embarrassment and even disaster to Jews everywhere.