Page Ten
THE JEWISH NEWS
Friday, April 12, 1946
An Emerging
Statemalutship
Eminent Jurist States that in his Judgment
Ideological Differences must be Shelved in Order
That Jewish Hopes in Palestine be Realized
By HON. CHARLES C. SIMONS
Judge of United States Circuit Court of Appeals
E
HE EDITOR of The Jewish News invited me
to prepare an article "on a subject of major current in-
terest," and I comply, not with the thought that I can
contribute anything new to major Jewish controversies,
but with the hope that some observations by one who,
for nearly a quarter of a century has endeavored to
adjudicate private controversies with detachment and a
diluted partisanship, may prove of interest, even if not
of value, in contemplation of the current world status
of Jews.
That which concerns us most vitally at the moment,
and to which all else must yield priority, is the relief
and rehabilitation of the stricken remnants of Israel
surviving in central and eastern Europe, and since all
credible evidence points to the fact that wherever their
ravaged homes, nearly all are filled with the burning
desire to go to Palestine, the inescapable corollary to
the first objective is the abrogation of the British White
Paper and the opening of the doors of Palestine to
unrestricted immigration.
It is my considered conclusion, therefore, that
those, however sincere and earnest their purpose,
who give emphasis to the ideological, religious or
other controversies that appear to divide us, impede
the realization of these objectives and do a dis-
service -to their people.
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N AN ADDRESS last winter to the Chicago
Federation of Reform Synagogues, published in "Liberal
Judaism" for July, 1945, I pointed out that at the United
Nations Conference then in session in San Francisco, 50
nations of differing cultures, languages and traditions,
with diverse political and economic systems, were en-
deavoring to formulate a charter for a new world order;
that whether such endeavor would be successful would
depend on whether the nations were prepared, for the
common good, to make the necessary sacrifices of
ideological concepts and traditional notions of sov-
ereignty; that if they were not, the high idealism which
promoted the calling of the Conference would fail of
fruition. I pointed out also that even while that brave
objective was being pursued there raged in our com-
paratively small segment of the world's population, a
controversy so bitter that the justice we had a right
• to expect from a new world order might again be
deferred.
I pointed out that while we were a people that
had suffered beyond the power of the imagination to
grasp, yet, with all the intellect, character, idealism
and historical consciousness that we possessed, we
seemed unable to give an unequivocal response to the
problem of the Jewish status in a new world order.
We spoke with a confusion of tongues, and
presented to the world an apparently irreconcil-
able conflict of ideas urged often intemperately
and sometimes even with vituperation.
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I
N THE ONE hand stand the Zionists whose
credo apparently is that Palestine furnishes the sole
answer to the Jewish problem, " and whose insistent
demand is that there be established at once a Jewish
state or , commonwealth.
On the other hand stands the Council for Judaism,
not great in $iumbers but hightly vocal and articulate,
supported by such groups as the Houston Congrega-
tion and its minor satellites, who .assert that we consti-
tute a purely religious group with no semblance of
nationality; that in America we are Americans by na-
tionality and Jews solely by religious conviction and
affiliation.
I undertook, naively, perhaps, to examine this
cleavage in our ranks, with the detachment which .I
have indicated, to see whether the - conflict was in-
deed irreconcilable.
I concluded, perhaps likewise naively, that it was
not. I relied upon the less emotional utterances of
Zionist leaders and the more temperate and more
reasonable attitude of those who, even though unable
to accept the concept of a Jewish nation in the modern
'world, nevertheless understand the vigor and force of
the Zionist idea r• - .' sense the ferment that is Work-
ing in the JewL1.
XEMPLIFYING the views of
the latter group was the latest state-
ment of the American Jewish Com-
mittee in its address, "To the Counsel-
lors of Peace." It should again be set
forth. The Committee approved of an
international trusteeship to:
a) Safeguard the Jewish settle-
ment in and Jewish immigration
into Palestine and to guarantee
adequate scope for future growth
and development to the full extent
of the economic absorptive capacity
of the country.
b) To safeguard and protect the
fundamental rights of all inhabit-
ants.
c) To safeguard and protect the
holy places of all faiths.
d) To prepare the country to be-
come, within a reasonable period
of years, a self-governing common-
wealth under a constitution and a
bill of rights that will safeguard
and protect these purposes and
basic rights for all.
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I
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was unable to conceive that, so far as they
went, the Committee's objectives could be unacceptable
to the most ardent Zionist. The vital point of differ-
ence between this and the Zionist objective is that
while the Committee looks forward to the ultimate
creation of an autonomous commonwealth in Pales-
tine, the Zionists insist upon the immediate guarantee
of an autonomous Jewish commonwealth. Both pro-
pose to do everything possible to achieve the abroga-
tion of the British White' Paper; both propose un-
restricted immigration up to the limits of the country's
absorptive capacity; both would remove all restricions
on land settlement, reclamation and purchase which
prevent the execution of large-scaled economic develop-
ment in agriculture and industry leading to increased
absorptive capacity, and I think both recognize that
it has now been made clear, by the sweat and toil of
the colonists and the studies of Lowdermilk, that the
absorptive capacity of Palestine is far greater than
had at first been supposed.
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I
T. WAS MY view that without a Jewish
majority in Palestine no Jewish commonwealth was
possible, and that the creation or evolution of such a
commonwealth must await a great increase in the
Jewish population. Substantial increase being barred
by British policy exemplified by the White Paper, the
achievement of the humanitarian purpose of the Com-
mittee and the political purpose of the Zionists both
depend upon the opening up of Palestine to un-
restricted .immigration. I found seeming authority for
this view in the observation of Dr. Weizmann in the
New York Times of November, 1944, "The common-
wealth must come about by political evolution."
Dr. Emanuel Neumann had envisioned a "free and
democratic nation composed of Jews, .Moslems, Chris-
tians, and others, which might have a Jewish Presi-
dent and an Arab Prime Minister, or vice versa." Since
then attention has been directed to a succession of
resolutions by the' Council for the Jewish Agency,
which repeatedly has emphasized the hope that Pales-
tine would be established as a _democratic common-
wealth, where neither Jew nor Arab shall dominate
or be dominated, and in which all men regardless of
race or creed, shall have equal rights.
If, then, the views stated represent the sounder
thinking of Zionists, and if the American Jewish Com-
mittee's program represents the more reasonable at-
titude of non-Zionists, it •seemed to me that there was
common ground upon which both groups could unite
in whole-hearted pursuit of objectives common to both,
with a united stand before the nations of the world,
and that the insistence of Zionists upon the immediacy
of their political objective represented but a choice of
emphasis.
I thought it was even possible for the
Council for Judaism to come to a more realistic evalua-
tion of the plight of homeless and stateless 'Jews,
however alluring, subjectively, might be the concept
that one is a Jew only by religion. I regretted, there-
fore, that the American Jewish Committee seceded
from the American Jewish Conference, and have op-
posed efforts to take the Union of American Hebrew
Congregations out of the Conference.
It seemed to me that the situation presented
a challenge to Jewish statesmanship to unite Jewish
effort on common objectives, putting first things
first.
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T WAS WITH great regret, therefore, that I
have observed continued manifestations of Jewish divis-
iveness within the last year, the airing of our controv-
ersies before Congressional Committees and the Anglo-
American Commission on Palestine. Nevertheless, there
appears on the horizon the hope-inspiring sign of an
emerging statesmanship.
It still is unfortunate that the activities of the
Council for Judaism present to the world an aspect of
vital cleavage in Jewish thought. Manifestly, 'sympathy
with Zionist aspirations -to end the homelessness and
misery of stateless Jews is.• not incompatible with
loyalty to America.
The star of David mingling with the cross of far-
flung graves, gives complete answer, and if further ex-
position is needed the Jewish chaplains have completely
made it. Of course one may, if he chooses, set himself
apart from the Jewish mass and. assert his lack of
identification with it in all aspects save religion. So may
one go further still, and in vain effort at assimilation,
deny even that bond.
In that futility the Jews of Germany found
their greater tragedy. It is fruitless to indulge in
semantics or in scientific controversy as to whether
we are nation or religion. The ties that bind us and
give us a sense of responsibility for world Jewry,
lie deep in Jewish consciousness, whatever their
rationalization. Herzl's classic delineation of Jews
as "an historic group of recognizable homogeneity"
is good enough for me.
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B
UT NOTWITHSTANDING some regretable
circumstances there is evidence of emerging wisdom
and responsibility. The' fact that it was possible for
all groups, Zionist and non-Zionist, to come together
in the historic National Conference of the United Jew-
ish Appeal in Atlantic City recently, and that they
could unite in recognition of the need for maximum
immigration to Palestine, and together embark upon
the greatest peace-time campaign in American history.
is an augury great in its promise.
The commendable clarity and sympathetic reason-
ableness of the American Jewish Committee speaking
through Judge Proskauer to the Anglo-American Com-
mission on Palestine, though presented with a reserva-
tion that there might be other havens of refuge for
homeless Jews, but with frank recognition of the
"burning desire to go to Palestine where they would
find brothers," and that "the world cannot force them
to go where they do not want to go and where they
would be strangers in a strange land," is additional
evidence of an emerging statesmanship.
It is idle to urge, as some have, that Jewish aspira-
tions in Palestine are for privilege and not for rights;
that if civil rights are protected wherever Jews reside,
that is all that is required. We have had minority
guarantees—but obligated governments have been over-
thrown and others have found it impossible to control
hostile populations. After ten years of indoctrination
in hate no appreciable number of German-Jews will
return to Germany.
Dr. Leo Baeck, former Principal Rabbi of
Berlin, said, upon his arrival in this country, recent-
ly, "This history of the Jews in Germany is
finished . . . the gulf between the German and
Jewish people can never be abridged."
Foreign Minister Ryzmowski of Poland is reported
to have said that while his government was not anti-
Semitic, the infiltration of the Nazi doctrine into
Poland has created an anti-Semitism which his govern-
ment has been powerless to overcome. What is true
of Germany and Poland is likewise true, in greater
or less degree, in Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania.
I
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COUNT MYSELF a Zionist, if Zionism
means, as I think it must mean, the establishment in
Palestine under the protection of the United Nations,
of a democratic commonwealth in which the Jewish
people may be permitted to become a major element
and so to destroy in at least one place upon the globe,
its minority status, and where every Jew may say,
as we in America are permitted to say, "This . is my
own—my native land."
I know no responsible Zionist who contends that
a Jewish state may be forced upon a population where-
in the predominant elements are not Jewish. • Such
impression, however, derives from some of the more
emotional eloquence- that puts emphasis upon the im-
mediacy of a political program rather than upon op-
portunity for population expansion which is the in-
escapable - predicate for an autonomous Jewish com-
monwealth. With all deference to the great abilities of
the Zionist leaders, I would shift that emphasis.
I
would have the. American Jewish Committee seek
some rapproachment with the Conference and have the
Conference make it possible for the Committee to add
its undeniably great influence to its own in pursuit
of objectives common to both.
I would have the Council for Judaism re-evalu-
ate the logic and re-examine the effect of the impact
of a 'purely subjective concept upon a harrassed and
homeless people whose tragically realistic experiences
deny it. If this be naivete, make the most of it.
THE JEWISH NEWS is privileged to publish
this interesting and thought-provoking article by
the eminent American jurist, the Hon. Charles C.
Simons, one of the outstanding Reform Jewish
leaders in this country. Judge Simons' objective
approach to the Zionist issue is worthy of the
attention of the entire Jewish community of
America, and the right to reprint this article (with
credit) is hereby given to all Jewish periodicals
in all English-speaking countries.
On the occasion of. Judge Simons' approaching
seventieth birthday, The Jewish News is pleased
to publish, on Page 14 of this issue, a tribute to
the noted jurist by Judge Frank A. Picard of
the U. S. District Court.
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