Unless the gap between Judaism and Zionism is closed, American Jewry is headed “down the road to assimilation and extinction,” Dr. Robert Gordis, president of the Synagogue Council of America, declared here tonight in a keynote sermon before 750 delegates at the opening session of the 22nd annual national convention of the Young People’s League of the United Synagogue of America. The convention will continue through Sunday.
“Zionism has scored an everlasting triumph in establishing the state of Israel and in preserving the Jewish people,” Rabbi Gordis said. “but nationalism is only one aspect of the totality of Jewish life. Zionism without the Jewish religion is a body without a soul. We must face the fact that those Zionists who are not also Jews will soon be lost to the Jewish people.”
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.
