British historian Arnold Toynbee reiterated at a public meeting here last night his charge that the treatment of the Arabs by Israel was morally equivalent to the Nazi genocide against European Jews. He was sharply challenged by the local rabbi.
Dr. Toynbee made the statement in reply to a question following his delivery of the annual Phillips Memorial lecture at West Chester State College here. The audience of 3,000 was mostly non-Jewish.
Rabbi Jerome Chervin of Congregation Kesher Israel, the only synagogue in West Chester, arose when Dr. Toynbee reiterated his charge and said it was his obligation to “clarify a few points of history” for Dr. Toynbee and for the record.
Rabbi Chervin said he would not go so far as to call Prof. Toynbee an out-and-out anti-Semite, though he did cite statements by Professor William Albright and other intellectual leaders who have asserted that Dr. Toynbee has a definite negative attitude toward Israel and Judaism.
The rabbi said the equation of the “cold and calculated annihilation” of 6, 000, 000 European Jews and the Israeli treatment of the Arabs following invasion of Israel by the “Arab warlords” was “utterly ridiculous.” He also said Dr. Toynbee “should open his eyes to the fact that 150,000 Arabs now live in Israel as first class citizens” and that Arabs served in the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament.
Professor Toynbee replied that the fact that he was against something or criticize de something, in this case, Israel, did not “ipso facto” make him an anti-Semite. Rabbi Chervin replied that he had not accused the historian of anti-Semitism but with being “misguided, unjust and biased.”
After the exchange between Rabbi Chervin from the floor and Dr. Toynbee from the dais, the historian insisted on coming down to the audience and discussing the matter further with Rabbi Chervin. A brief discussion took place on the floor which ended with an agreement between the two to exchange correspondence on the issue. This was urged by Dr. Toynbee, who told the rabbi “we must straighten this matter out.”
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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.
