The American Jewish community was urged not to “overwhelm itself with fears” of an erosion of American public support for Israel, Albert D. Chernin, newly-selected executive vice-chairman of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, also disputed the apprehensions of some Jewish communal leaders and groups that anti-Jewish sentiment was gaining serious ground in America.
Addressing the Council’s 450 delegates at a session last Friday of its annual plenary installing him in office, Chernin argued that “the greater danger is not in failing to see new problems threatening Jewish life, but in failing to recognize the new status enjoyed by the American Jewish community, The greater danger is in basing our behavior and programs on the belief that American Jews are struggling to achieve their goals in a sea of hostility,” he declared.
Chernin said that polls and studies since 1947 have shown “a steady growth of positive feelings” among Americans toward Israel. He proposed that American-Israeli relations be interpreted “in long term perspective rather than in the immediate focus of each day’s headlines, gossip and rumor,”
A LITTLE PARANOIA IS REALISTIC
“A little paranoia is a realistic perception of Jewish history and essential to our survival,” Chernin said. But a “blind attitude” by American Jews to their “hospitable conditions” could lead to “postures that elicit the very antagonisms they seek to prevent. They can become a self-fulfilling prophecy threatening our survival,” he warned.
Chernin’s speech was seen as reacting to concerns expressed by some Jewish elements that the Ford Administration’s Middle East reassessment, the threat of another Arab oil embargo and the economic political impacts of newly-rich Arab states, along with intensified Arab propaganda are creating diminished American public support for Israel and heightening the potentials for anti-Jewish attitudes.
The new NJCRAC executive, who succeeded Isaiah M. Minkoff, is a 47-year-old intergroup relations specialist who had directed the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Philadelphia for the past seven years. Previously he was a member of the council staff for 11 years. Minkoff was honored at a special “tribute” dinner marking his retirement. He became the chief executive of NJCRAC at its founding in 1941 and guided it through its first 31 years.
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.
