The anti-Zionist views of the American Council for Judaism were outlined here today by Lassing Rosenwald, president of the organization, before the American Philosophical Society.
“The anti-Zionist goal equates completely and is dependent on the democratic goal,” he said. “It maintains that in a democratic world, the proposal of a Jewish state is destructive. Adherents of this philosophy, therefore, will turn for a solution to the fullest expression of democratic concepts and to a worldwide acceptance of the sanctity of the individual and fundamental human rights.”
A different idea is expressed by Zionism, Rosenwald added. “Zionism is founded on the idea that Jews are elements of a nation; that these elements suffer from a sense of ‘homelessness’ and will remain so unless they possess a sovereign territory of their own; that when and if such sovereign territory were acquired, the problem of Jews would be substantially solved. The national element of Zionism is thus basic.
“Grant the nationalist’s premise that Jews are a nation,” he continued, “suffering from a sense of homelessness and from a lack of a special national home, and it follows that the problem can be resolved only by the creation of a Jewish State or commonwealth. In other words, Zionism is linked to a formula for Jewish territorial sovereignty. According to the Zionists even the most genuins and thoroughly developed democracy is incapable of solving the problems of the Jews.”Widespread democracy, Mr. Rosenwald asserted, is fundamentally destructive of Jewish nationalism insofar as its values tend to eliminate the yearing for a separate national existence.
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.
