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Berlin.
The Liberal faction which has been administering the affairs of the Berlin Jewish Community organization with a remarkable degree of success, has replied to the German Zionist Federation which, supported by the Jewish People’s League, has demanded reorganization of the Jewish community in order to give the Zionist elements full control.
Demand for control of the gemeinde’s board is only one part of the Zionist objectives proclaimed at the recent conference of the organization as complete direction of all German-Jewish life. But it is evident that the battle will be fought out first in the Berlin Jewish community.
DENY ZIONIST CONTENTION
The Liberals deny the Zionist assertion that reconstitution of the community is in accordance with the sentiment of the Jewish population and accuse the Zionists of bringing internal Jewish party politics into the community arena from which they had been happily banished.
"Regardless of the growing want which has penetrated into every Jewish family, the Zionist faction considers it again timely to start internal Jewish political conflicts within the communal life," the statement of the Liberal leaders declares. "The faction of the Jewish People’s League and the Zionist Federation consider it intolerable that the board of the Jewish Community should remain constituted in a way which to their idea no longer corresponds with the real desires of the Jewish population, and they call for a personal and organizational reconstruction of the central and local bodies of German Jewry which will guarantee the Zionists their proper influence in the shaping of Jewish work in Germany.
LIBERALS POINT TO PROGRESS
"To this we reply," the statement continues, "we shall not allow the work, which is at the present time hard enough, to be impaired by such conflicts. We shall continue heedless of Party dogmas to carry out the tasks which the present Jewish situation requires. We declare that the school system of the Berlin Jewish Community has, under Liberal leadership, been expanded since 1933 by increasing the number of children by 2,400, by opening fifty-nine new classes and by appointing 135 new teachers.
"The Welfare Office of the Jewish Community, under Liberal leadership, provided relief in the years 1933 and 1934 month after month for an average of 19,000 people.
"The economic aid department of the Jewish Community was created under Liberal leadership, and during its existence it has maintained or created by credit aids more than 2,000 livelihoods. It has given vocational training to 4,000 young people, and has now on the completion of the school year placed about 1,000 children in occupations. The vocational continuation training, the sport and cultural training of the youth, equally whether they seek their activity here, or desire to emigrate to Palestine, or other countries, has been fully supported by the Community. The homes for the aged and the hospital of the Jewish Community have under Liberal leadership been extended, and in spite of the economies necessary, all the institutions of the Community have been maintained, and many of them have been expanded.
HAVE AVOIDED PARTY STRIFE
"The Board of the Jewish Community only recently declared its attitude on the Palestine question and has dealt with the relations of the Jews in Germany to Palestine in a definitely positive sense. All that has been done in the Community in agreement and peace, in constant collaboration with the Zionist members of the Board and the Representative Council. Internal Jewish Party political differences have been deliberately avoided.
"Since 1933 there have been no questions in the board, or representative council of the Community decided by majority vote and Party political considerations. That fact was recognized in the decision to prolong the term of office of the Community bodies by a unanimous vote of the board and a majority of thirty-eight against three votes in the representative council only a few months ago, valid until 1936.
"It is our wish to continue to do real work. We know that the majority does not stand behind those who wage Jewish party politics, but on the side of those who want to do real constructive Jewish work unconcerned by Jewish party political differences. It is our task to lead the Community and all its members in peaceful common work through the perils of the time."
FORCE VS. PERSUASION
This statement sums up the issues involved from the practical point of view. On the one side, the Zionists demand that they be given full control of German-Jewish life in order to guarantee that the work for Palestine is given its proper place in the scheme of things. On the other side, the present administration replies that it has dealt with the Palestine work in a definitely positive sense and points out that the present situation in Germany for the Jews requires certain other phases of work of paramount importance to the welfare of German Jewry. This work, as the above statement justly claims, is being competently and capably handled.
Neither this statement nor recent declarations by non-Zionist leaders take up the fundamental question at issue—whether willy-nilly a whole Jewish community is to be forced to accept Zionism because the rulers of the country want the Jews to leave, without the normal and more satisfactory procedure of education and conversion to Zionism. It would seem to me that the Zionists themselves should prefer new Zionists brought into the fold by conviction and belief rather than by forcible conversion. Our history is replete with examples of the failure of force to overcome belief.
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