The “Israelit,” the central organ of Orthodox Jewry of Germany, attacks in its current issue the claim made by the recent conference of the Zionist Federation of Germany to represent the whole of German Jewry.
“It is difficult to understand,” the paper writes, “how men of education and good taste fail to realize the impression made by such a claim at domination on non-Zionist Jews of Germany who still preserve a feeling of spiritual independence. If the Zionist movement bases its claim to leadership on the supposed fact that it has a majority of votes in the Jewish community, then it need not present an ultimatum, but can put it into effect automatically.
“The conference, however, seems to issue a decree that German Jewry must submit itself to the dictation of a Zionist minority simply because the Zionist national point of view has proved itself more in accordance with present tendencies than any other. This, in effect, means a demand for assimilation to temporary expediency. From a point of view of historic Judaism, the “Israel it” concludes, “we oppose such a claim most determinedly.
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.
