These Favor Endorsement

(Rabbi, Congregation Anshe Emet, Chicago, Ill.)

I am not a member of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and did not therefore, cast my vote with the 241. I may then, in the present instance, perhaps be credited with some measure of impartiality.

Seven years ago, I went to Palestine, knowing little of the Histadruth. As a general Zionist and Rabbi, I naturally moved in middle class surroundings. My friends in Palestine were certainly not among the Labor-ties. I had come to Palestine directly from Russia, where the persecution of the Synagogue, Zionism and Hebrew, by the Yevsektz, often made me want to forget all the good there might be in Communism, Socialism and Marx.

‘ALL ROADS TO HISTADRUTH’

I entered Palestine not in the mood to glorify the Jewish Socialist. But after a few weeks in the country, I discovered that most roads led to the Histadruth. Wherever men gathered, in private, to discuss the progress of the Yishub, the Histadruth was invariably lauded for its achievements. All but the most extreme partisans, spoke with deep gratitude for, and generous recognition of, the discipline, the courage, the wisdom of the organization and its leaders. Slowly, the prejudice I brought with me from Russia dissolved. I began to visit the colonies, hold converse with the workers, play with the children and examine them in their studies. More than once, with tears in my eyes, I pronounced the Sheheyanu.

MET LEADERS

Later, I met Ben-Zevi and his wife, Katazenelensohn, Ben-Gurion, Rubashov, Manya Shohat, Hanna Chizik, Haya Busl and Arlosoroff, of blessed memory. If you, sir, know of a nobler group of men and women, you have indeed traveled far and wide. Strange, that seven years ago, when I returned from Palestine, I should have been prompted to call my sermon on the Histadruth, “Prophecy in Action.”

The immortal Bialik, who loved every square inch of Palestine, and every Jew the world over, found in the Histadruth and the Habimah, his greatest source of joy and hope. I have it from his own lips. In a letter published posthumously, he declared that had he the time to engage in political leadership, he would have joined the Histadruth.

Now do you wonder that Rabbis are impressed, and that two hundred and forty-one of them have offered their blessing and support?

Regarding your charges against the Histadruth as being “Marxian” and “atheistic,” I dare say they are ridiculous, showing an utter ignorance of the factual situation, and of the history of the Palestine Jewish Labor movement. Suffice it merely to mention the names of such men as the late A. D. Gordon, a deeply ethical and religious personality, Isaac Ben Zvi, Berl Katzenelenson, Zalman Rubashov, men deeply rooted in Jewish scholarship and Jewish ethical idealism. Scholars of note, who are the present leaders of the Histadruth. To call these men anti-religious and anti-Jewish is, mildly speaking, a gross misrepresentation of real facts.

NEEDS NO ‘HECHSHER’

The Jewish labor movement in Palestine, the Histadruth, in my opinion, needs no more your “Hechsher,” not even the “Hechsher” of the Reform Rabbis. Its achievements in building up a complete structure of organized labor, a cooperative economic society, in establishing friendly relations between Jewish and Arab workers, its realistic orientation in the political situation of Palestine, are generally recognized, and, therefore, regarded by many as “the corner, stone” of the whole Yishuv.

It is the eagerness and selfless devotion of the Histadruth for a cooperative and humane society as opposed to a competitive one, its endeavor to prevent social inequality, and the cancer of exploitation of labor from the newly created social life in Jewish Palestine, that appeals so strongly to all progressive and socially-minded people. And Rabbis, particularly as teachers of Jewish religion and ethics, to whom the so often abused “social justice” is not a meaningless phrase, see in the Palestine Jewish labor movement, as represented by the Histadruth, the only ones who symbolize in a most concrete way the ethical teaching of Judaism, by translating them in daily living.

NOT EXCLUSIVE PRIVILEGE

And in this connection, may I remind you of the fact that the endorsement of the Histadruth is not the exclusive “privilege” of Reform Rabbis, who committed themselves as individuals only, but that the first official endorsement of the Palestine Jewish Labor movement came from the so-called “conservative” group of American Rabbis who, as a body, at the convention of the Rabbinical Assembly, consisting of the graduate Rabbis of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, in July, 1934, at Tannersville, N. Y., unanimously adopted the following resolution:

“We express our hearty appreciation of the contributions of the Palestine Labor Movement led by the Histadruth, to the rebuilding of the Jewish National Home in Palestine and to the advancement of the ideal of a cooperative commonwealth. We furthermore urge a deeper consciousness of and a more sympathetic attitude towards the rich traditional and religious heritage of Israel, which is basic to the social idealism of the labor movement.

All our Prophets were radicals in the full sense of the word, still they were very close towards their God. Socialism or Communism are in reality movements, leading toward the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man; as those “isms” are not Karl Marx’s theory, but coming from Moses, thousands of years before him, “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is the beginning and end of all radical movements. Furthermore, a writer wis silk gloves is not in a position to attack Socialism unless inspired, or having worked in a shop, mill or factory and has seen, also suffered from the present existing evils that still exist for the workers, and has heard the voice of God crying, against that unlovely, constant battle of brother against brother.