JEWS AGAINST ZIONISM: THE AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR JUDAISM, 1942-194
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Date: September 25th, 2012 1:29 AM Author: Razzle-dazzle Market Electric Furnace
In 1942 a number of dissident Reform rabbis founded the American Council for Judaism (ACJ), the first and only Jewish organization ever created to fight against Zionism and the establishment of a Jewish state. Although initially representing religious opposition to political Zionism, the ACJ was rapidly transformed into an essentially secular anti-Zionist pressure group after Lessing J. Rosenwald assumed its presidency in April 1943. Under Rosenwald's leadership and the guidance of Rabbi Elmer Berger, the ACJ's executive director, it became the most formidable Jewish opponent of the Zionist movement in the United States in the 1940s. The organization's membership, consisting mostly of Reform Jews of German descent, peaked at about 14,000 in 1948.
The ACJ's principles, based on the tenets of nineteenth century Reform Judaism (classical Reform), emphasized the purely religious nature of Judaism and unequivocally rejected Jewish nationalism. Establishment of a Jewish state was repudiated as regressive, undemocratic, and contrary to Jewish interests. For the ACJ Zionism represented a philosophy of despair, a retreat from emancipation, loss of faith in emancipation, and, above all, self-segregation. Instead of a Jewish state, the ACJ supported free Jewish immigration and equal rights for Jews throughout the world. For Palestine, specifically, it advocated establishment of a democratic state wherein all citizens, regardless of their religion, would enjoy equal political rights.
From 1943 to 1948 the ACJ fought fiercely against the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. Since by 1943 the majority of American Jews rallied behind the Zionist program, the ACJ was unable to make any significant inroads into the Jewish community. While largely isolated among Jews, it collaborated closely with the State Department, the major focus of opposition to Zionism within the American government.
The main reason for Zionist success was the Holocaust. The great Jewish catastrophe infused life into Zionism and created the political atmosphere that made the birth of Israel possible. It discredited the facile optimism and the liberal assumptions of the anti-Zionists and doomed the ACJ to failure.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=2061522&forum_id=2#21654044) |
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