U.S. Jewish Scholars Advise Israel on Approach to American Jews

Two American Jewish scholars, including the first non-Zionist to appear at the International Ideological Conference now taking place at Hebrew University, agreed today that any strategy of trying to frighten American Jews into settling in Israel was futile.

Prof. Salo Baron of Columbia University asserted that neither an emphasis on anti-Semitism, nor a harping on Jewish misfortunes, past or future, would inspire American Jewish youth to settle in Israel. He said the “splendor and glory” of Jewishness and Israel’s constructive achievements should be emphasized in proposals for Israeli settlement.

Prof. Oscar Handlin of Harvard University, frankly describing himself as an assimilated Jew. said the best way to persuade American Jews to go to Israel was not to frighten them but instead to appeal to their Americanism. The appeal should be on the basis that there was a “worthwhile task” for them to perform, he said. He pointed out that there were 5, 000, 000 Americans now living in other countries because they felt they could accomplish more in foreign lands than in the United States.

Dr. Raphael Mahler, another American Jewish scholar, argued that any solution other than settlement in Israel was a “palliative” and that the real choice for all Jews was either to settle in Israel or assimilate. Bezalel Sherman, American Labor Zionist ideologist, contended that Jewry could not develop under the conditions of assimilation and integration into American life without deriving sustenance from Israel to maintain Jewish identification.

Dr. Arieh Tartakower, head of the Israeli section of the World Jewish Congress, said use of the threat of assimilation was as valueless as warnings of anti-Semitism in inducing Jews to settle in Israel.