THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
2
man to call attention to the funda-
mental issues underlying the meas-
ures that may be brought before
us, and to point out the possible
consequences of one or another de-
cision.
When Judaism, in its "Adonai
Echod" — proclaims unity, as its
vital and essential principle, it af-
firms not a mere philosophic or doc-
trinal monotheism, but also the
unity of Israel, preserved by a liv-
ing faith, and the unity of mankind
that Israel hopes yet to bring about.
To speak of the unity of mankind
in the day of world-wide carnage
may indeed seem the delusion of an
incurable visionary—to speak of the
unity of Israel while Israel's sons
are arrayed as enemies upon the
battlefield may seem a ghastly
mockery. But precisely because
such is the seeming, it has become
more than ever our duty to empha-
size our unshakable faith in human
brotherhood, to proclaim again and
again our undying conviction that
justice and freedom will unite all
men in peace.
As American citizens we cherish
in common with the great bulk of
our loyal fellow countrymen the
hope that it may be the merit of our
country to hasten peace in the world
and to restore the bonds of fellow-
ship and humanity among the war-
ring peoples. As Jews and Zion-
ists in America, should we not hold
still more strongly to the hope that
it may be our merit to restore, with
peace and unity, also happiness and
freedom and opportunity to our
suffering brethren among the na-
tions now at war ? But how can we
hope to become an instrument for
peace and union if we ourselves set
the example of strife and division?
That strife and division do exist in
American Israel none may deny. I
shall not attempt to apportion the
blame. Suffice to say it is not all
on one side. But however that may
be, it is the duty of every American
Jew to do all that he may to put an
end to unseemly and dangerous dis-
sension.
Wherein does this clear duty
touch our convention? The answer
is close at hand.
We should here consider only
those questions—and they are suf-,
ficiently numerous and weighty—
that immediately concern Zionism.
On other questions, such as the
proper method of organization of
Jews in any country of Europe,
Asia, Africa or America—as prob-
lems of theology and ethnology—
as niceties of pedagogic method, and
so on and so forth—we should reso-
lutely decline to take sides. Con-
cerning these we may, as individ-
uals, have and express honest dif-
ferences of judgment. Our differ-
ences may be capable or incapable
of adjustment ; though knowledge
of human nature reaches those who
wish to agree can always find
ground for agreement, while those
who are determined to differ can al-
ways find excuses for difference.
But whether compds . able or incom-
posable, these differences are no
concern of Zionism. To make the
holding of any particular opinion
thereon a test of Zionistic loyalty,
Or to accord or withhold opportu-
nity for service, as one accepts or
rejects the views of thoSe for the
moment in power, centrally or lo-
cally, is to thwart the very object
of our organization as an unifying
force in Israel.
Certainly it is no part of the creed
or platform of Zionism, no part of
the duty or function of the Federa-
tion of American Zionists, to at-
tempt the 'destruction of any organ-
ization which any of our fellow
Jews, be . their number or their in-
fluence great or small, choose to
make the medium of their efforts in
behalf of our oppressed brethren.
Let me make my meaning perfectly
clear by a concrete illustration :
I am not, and I never have been,
a member of the American Jewish
Committee. I hold no brief for
that body. I have publicly expressed
the opinion that it has blunderingly
missed a great opportunity. But no
one who is familiar with the history
of Jewish affairs or who has work-
ed in the ranks of the Jews, how-
ever humbly, if only during the last
thirty-five years, that is to say, since
the May laws of 1882, can shut his
eyes to the great debt that Judaism
and the Jewish people owe to some
of the members of that committee.
The committee itself has indeed
accomplished much for persecuted
Israel during its compartively brief
existence ; but more, far more, is
the service of its individual mem-
bers long before the committee was
organized, a service continued still,
and to be continued, I doubt not,
during their lives. That service
may well be characterized by the
phrases of the Shema.
During all these years we Jews
have been "upon their hearts, and
bound for a sign upon their hands,"
and their thoughts have been and
are for the welfare of Israel, "when
they sit in the house, and when they
walk by the way, when the lie down
and when they rise up."
Errors they have made, for they
"are men, and not angels," and no
man is infallible ; but it is neither
just nor kind to represent them as
protagonists of class against mass.
That, at least, is not the dividing
line. Moreover, if the American
Jewish Committee has made errors
of one kind, its critics have made
errors, certainly no less grave, of
another kind. Zionists also have
blunderingly missed a great oppor-
tunity. It is to be hoped that both
errors may be cancelled and the rep-
resentatives of all Jewry ere long
foregather, in renewed union, for
the common good of all Israel.
Let it be the merit of this con-
vention to lead the way toward that
reunion. So shall we place beyond
peril the continuance of Zionistic
union in America.
It is to plead and to work for. the
preservation of that union, as well
as for the larger union of all Amer-
ican Israel, that I am here today.
From my personal knowledge, I
can say this: It is now, and al-
ways has been, possible to arrange
for an assembly representative of
all American Jews upon an equit-
able and just basis, democratic in
spirit and, as nearly as possible,
democratic in method.
As to the objects of such a gath-
ering all are agreed. Its function
must be to consider and determine
and take steps to put into effect the
measures best adapted, first to se-
cure full and equal rights for Jews
in every country of the world, with-
out' impeaching their loyalty as cit-
izens of any, and, second, to put
forth in the most advisable and
practical way that special claim
which Israel has upon the Holy
Land. And, further, I do not hesi-
tate to say that at any such assem-
bly, conference or congress under
any call that has been issued or may
hereafter be issued, recommenda-
tions concerning Palestine were and
are intended to be left to the ac-
credited representatives of the
Zionist organization, and action to
be only such as this Federation and
the Zionists of the world can ap-
prove.
In all this there is no issue call-
ing for division. Yet division has
arisen. Whether necessary or need-
less, that division is evidently based
upon issues extraneous to Zionism.
In either event, we should not as
Zionists p e rm i t ourselves to be
dragged into it to the imperilment
of our true purpose, or suffer our
organization to be made an instru-
ment not of union but of disruption
in Israel. To prevent such disrup-
tion I have—against the extremists
in both camps—at every proper op-
portunity striven, and shall so con-
tinue to strive. It may be that out-
side of Zionism, even those of us
who are still hoping against hope
for union, will be compelled to
make reluctant choice between fac-
tions, of which neither has our full
approval. But within Zionism—and
whatever comes we shall never
cease to be Zionists—within Zion-
ism, as it is our bounden duty to
declare to the latest possible mo-
ment — within Zionism these dis-
turbing issues have no place.
Fellow Zionists, I have spoken
"with malice toward none, with
charity toward all," not for myself
alone, but for many of our com-
rades who have, by letter and by
word of mouth, asked me to voice
their deep feeling. They await with
mingled anxiety and hope the issue
of the deliberations of the conven-
tion. May God give us, one and all,
wisdom to see, and courage to do
the right.
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