THE JEWISH CHRONICLE

THE JEWISH CHRONIdLE

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Entered as second-class matter March 3, 1916, at the Post Office at Detroit,
Mich., under the Act of March 3, 1879

FRIDAY, JULY 6, 1917

The Meeting at Buffalo

The meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, held,
in the city of Buffalo, has passed into history and will undoubtedly be
epoch-making in its effects. By an overwhelming vote of those pres-
ent, the Conference has reiterated its historical stand that Judaism as
a priest people, has a religious mission, and that any other interpreta-
tion of Israel's destiny is a misreading of its place and purpose in the
world. It is only logical, in view of this declaration of belief, that the
Conference should have decided to take no part whatsoever in the
forthcoming Jewish Congress. The resolution upon this subject, as
adopted by the Conference, reads as follows :
"It is the sense of this Committee that the American Jewish Con-
gress should not be held. The causes that in the first instance seemed
to justify the calling of this Congress have, in large part, ceased to
exist. The Russian Revolution has radically altered the condition of
our co-religionists in Russia ; promises to secure the civil and religious
rights of the Jews all the world over, and has accomplished for them
much that the proponents of the Congress had hoped to bring about.
"The fact that the United States is now an active participant in
the world-war, is another very cogent reason against the holding of
this Jewish Congress.
"We express our confidence that the Peace Envoys who will rep-
resent our Government at the Peace Conference, to be held at the con-
clusion of. the war, will conserve the civil and religious rights of all
peoples. For these and other reasons, it is deemed inadvisable that
the Central Conference take any further part in the formation or the
holding of the American Jewish Congress, and therefore it is resolved
that the C. C. A. R. take no part in the American Jewish Congress."
The reasons stated in this resolution, of course, cover only in part
the actual considerations that impelled the Conference to take such
drastic action in the matter. From every part of the country well au-
thenticated reports had come that the election of delegates to the
Congress was unfairly conducted, and with a view of turning the
Congress into a Zionistic convention at any cost. The decision of the
delegates at the Baltimore convention of the Zionists, to stand by the
terms of the recent peace agreement between the advocates of the
Conference idea and the Congress idea—a decision because of which
several of the constituent organizations of the American Federation
of Zionists withdrew from the convention, is itself counteracted by
the re-election of Mr. Louis Lipsky, the author of the now famous
letter, which urged that only Zionists be elected to the Congress, and
that the peace agreement be interpreted "not literally but liberally."
But that is not all. A resolution adopted by the Executive Com-
mittee of the American Federation of Zionists at the conclusion of the
Convention, actually validated the breaking of a solemn agreement by
the Zionists and in approved Prussian fashion, turns a treaty solemnly
entered into into a mere scrap of paper. Altogether, aside from these
considerations that make the holding of the Congress inadvisable, if
not positively dangerous to the cause of world Jewry, the methods
pursued not only by scattered Zionistic organizations throughout the
land, but by high officials and leaders in the Zionistic movement, have
- made it impossible for the C. C. A. R. to participate with them in the
Congress, since such participation would mean an alliance with and
an approval of the unethical methods that have been employed. Were
the reported attempts to turn the Congress into a Zionistic meeting,
confined to this or that part of the country, they might be explained
by the inexperience or the overzeal of those in charge of affairs. But
when methods fairly unscrupulous are reported to have been identical
in every part of the country, it is beyond belief that these methods
were not carried on under instruction.

No doubt there will be those who hold that the Central Confer-
ence of American Rabbis should have participated in the Congress so
that on the floor of the assembly it might have recorded its protest
against the methods used and have lifted its voice against the breakin g
of a solemn compact. But anyone who knows the constitution of Lhe
Congress as it is planned, cannot be unaware of the futility of such a
proceeding. The participation of the Conference in this mecum c
would have been proclaimed by the leaders of the Congress as anot her
Zionistic victory, just as a few individual reform rabbis who have ‘ A_
pressed their willingness to attend the Congress or who have declay , 11
themselves in sympathy with certain phases of non-political Zion i Hn
have been represented to the country as ardent and enthusiastic eo n _
verts to the Zionistic platform. The Central Conference of America n
Rabbis took the only stand that logically and consistently it 0.1,1,1
take. It has no apology and no explanation for its action to offer to
any man or to any set of men. It has acted consistently with its \„)
history. It has declared anew that the mission of Israel is a religi,i us
mission and that it cannot properly interpret the destiny of Judaism
in the terms of nationalism or racialism. Whether the Congress will
or will not be held, the issue between the two parties in modern Israel
is now perfectly clear. There can be no further befogging of the
issue. That question is: Is Israel a racial and national entity, or is
it a religious entity? Can the Jew be atheist and agnostic and yet be
a Jew just because he believes in an ultimate national restoration, or
is he the-Jew who, holding Israel to be a priest people, believes that
Judaism must fulfill itself in the world and by bringing all men to a
clearer conception of loyalty to God and to a sense of consecrated
service in the world? These questions each Jew must answer for
himself. Perhaps the future will tell who is right.

All Are Jews

In the impassioned discussion of the Zionistic question on the
floor of the Rabbinical Conference at nuffalo, the charge was fre-
quently made by the Zionistic leaders that Reform Judaism attempts
to read out of the household of Israel those who hold to a nationalistic
interpretation of Israel's mission. This statement is absolutely false.
Never has it been claimed by the leaders and teachers of the Reform
movement that any man who proclaims himself a Jew, is by virtue
of his interpretation of Judaism, anything other than a Jew. A man
born within the household of Israel, remains a Jew until he himself
by affiliation with a church whose doctrines are in fundamental con-
tradiction to the essential teachings of Judaism, or until by his own
pronunciamento reads himself out of the circle of his fellow Jews.
To say that a Zionist is not a Jew is a libel upon Judaism. But on
the other hand to say, as so many of our Zionistic friends are accus-
tomed to say, that the Reform Jew is not a Je ∎v, is equally libelous.
On both sides of this problem are men of strong convictions, who may
both be presumed to be honest in their differing opinions, and neither
has the right to shut the gates of religious brotherhood upon the
other. We of the Reform school may. say that the unreligious Jew
is an anomaly and that we do not understand him, but for all that so
long as he himself does not deny his Jewish affiliation, we 'accept him
as our brother. The truth of the matter is that the responsibility for
reading Jews out of the camp of Israel is on the shoulders of our
friends, the Zionists, who never tire of proclaiming that the Reform
Jew is no Jew at all. Hasn't the time come when staunchness to our
own convictions should not tend to make us unfair to those who differ
from us? Is there not enough upon which all Jews may agree that
our points of difference should not obscure all that we have in com-
mon? The times call for unity even if we cannot have union within
the fold. Orthodox and radical, Zionist and non-Zionist, should in
times like these do what he may to emphasize the unity of Israel.

The Future of Palestine

Despite the reiteration of its stand against a nationalistic inter-
pretation of the Jewish mission, the Central Conference of American
Rabbis set itself on record as being desirous of co-operating in all cul-
tural movements affecting Zionism, and directed its Committee on
Jews of Other Lands, to consider this question as soon as normal
conditions shall render it possible to propose tangible action. "All
Jews must of necessity unite in a sentiment . of emotional attachment
to the cradle of Israel's history," so runs part of the resolution on this
subject, "and they are alive to the necessity of raising the moral, in-
tellectual and economic standards of the Jews of Palestine." In view
of the changes in the condition of Palestine, which the present war is
bound to bring about, a united world Jewry should co-operate to raise
the status of the Jew in Palestine in every po'ssible way. In this work
the Jews of all shades of opinion can certainly work together. It is
only insofar as the political aspects of Palestianian Judaism are con-
cerned, that there can legitimately be a difference of opinion.

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