Zionist History Different Had Brandeis Remained in Power

Gratification in the accord between the Zionists and non-Zionists through the consummation of the Jewish Agency Council at Zurich is apparently not shared by all members of the Zionist opposition group in the United States, frequently referred to as the Brandeis-Mack group, if the utterances of Rabbi Louis I. Newman of Temple Emanu-El, San Francisco, are to be taken as an expression of the group’s present views. Rabbi Newman, who was a staunch supporter of the opposition group in its recent fight against the Lipsky administration of the Zionist Organization of America, writing in the current issues of the “American Israelite” and the “Portland Scribe,” takes a pessimistic view of the future of Zionism in the Agency period. Asserting that the Zionist opponents of the Jewish Agency extension were justified, Rabbi Newman formulates the position of the Brandeis group as wishing “a Jewish Agency but not this Jewish Agency.” He asserts that the Jewish Agency extension became necessary and was consummated because the Zionist Organization, under the Lipsky and Weizmann regime, faced bankruptcy and a loss of prestige. The writer conjectures on what might have been the fate of the Zionist movement if the split in American Zionism in 1921 would have ended without a victory for Weizmann. He says:

“If Louis Dembitz Brandeis had remained in power after 1921, Zionist history during the last eight years would have been vastly different, and the epoch closed by the Zurich Congress would have had a different outcome. Re-writing history is a perilous task. But if Chaim Weizmann had been willing to cooperate with the Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, the latter might have resigned his post on the bench, devoted himself exclusively to Zionism and eventually become its world leader. During the World War, however, Weizmann had said: ‘Brandeis follows me; I will not follow Brandeis.’

“When peace came and the Mandate was in sight, Weizmann wished a free hand. Brandeis was a thorn in his side; as soon as he could, he removed the irritation. Brandeis was universally recognized as one of America’s foremost economic authorities, a corporation expert, a favorite advisor of Woodrow Wilson, with acute understanding of the problems of industry, commerce and agriculture. He had a careful program for Palestine’s economic rehabilitation; he had proposed an Economic Council; he had approached the Reform Jewish leaders and the Joint Distribution Committee. But Weizmann, using the economic emphasis of the Brandeis program as an excuse, rallied his chief oratorical guns, including Ussishkin and Schmarya Levin, invaded the American Zionist Organization and with the help of Louis Lipsky, overthrew the Brandeis-Mack regime. In 1928, the legatees of the Brandeis tradition made another effort to recapture leadership, assailing the Lisky administration for its inefficiencies; on the very threshold of victory, they were defeated by a fluke,” Rabbi Newman writes.