American Council for Judaism Issues Statement Opposing Jewish State

A statement appealing to the United Nations to “secure the earliest feasible repatriation or resettlement under the best possible conditions of all peoples uprooted from their homes by the Axis powers” was made public today by the American Council for Judaism, Inc.

“For our fellow-Jews,” the statement says, “we ask only this, equality of rights and obligations with their fellow-nationals.” Along with this appeal the statement opposes the establishment of a national Jewish state “as a philosophy of defeatism” and expresses the hope. “for the ultimate establishment of a democratic, autonomous government in Palestine wherein Jews, Moslems and Christians shall be justly represented, every man enjoying equal rights and shoring equal responsibilities, a democratic government in which our fellow-Jews shall be free Palestinians whose religion is Judaism, even as we are Americans whose religion is Judaism.”

The statement was issued as a declaration of principles of the recently organized American Council for Judaism, Inc., formed “to present the views of Americans of Jewish faith on problems affecting the future of world Jewry as well as their own lives in the present hour of world confusion,” The Council reaffirms the historic truth that the Jews of the world share common traditions and ethical concepts which find their derivation in the same religious source, the statement said.

Signatories to the statement include Lessing J. Rosenwald, Philadelphia, Frank Sulzberger, Chicago, Dr. Monroe Deutsch, Berkley, Calif., E.P. Adler, Davenport, Iowa, Joseph M. Bloch, Indianapolis, Dr. M. G. Seclig, St. Louis, Julius L. Stern, Wilkes-Barre, William Frank, Pittsburgh, William Ehrlich, Boston, Mrs. Sidney C. Borg, New York, Lincoln Gries, Akron, Ohio, Aaron Straus, Baltimore, George Oppenheimer, Kansas City, Dr. Samuel Goldenson, New York, Rabbi Irving Reichert, San Francisco and others.