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Claim of American Jewry's 'Over-Commitment'
to Israel Is Challenged by Israeli Spokesmen
TEL AVIV (JTA) — A former
Knesset member who is now a
New York resident and an Ameri-
can theologian touched off spirited
exchanges Tuesday night at the
American-Israel dialogue with
charges that Israel was "intellec-
tually totalitarian" and the Ameri-
can Jews were "over-committed"
to Isra'el psychologically.
The totalitarianism charge was
made by Hillel Kook, who also was
a leader of the pre-state under-
ground Irgun. He told the partici-
pants meeting at Rehovot in the
American Jewish Congress-spon-
sored talks with Israel had "too
little dissent, too little discussion
of vital issue, too little debate on
fundamental questions."
Arthur A. Cohen, New York
theologian and philosopher,
elaborating his charge of over-
commitment, asserted, that the
American Jewish community had
to define its priorities in rela-
tion to Israel. The "crisis" of
American Jewish life, he as-
serted, was the development of a
belief that every phase of Ameri-
can Jewish behavior had to be
measured "and validated" by its
relationship to Israel.
Vigorously challenging the Zion-
ist axion that a Jew can lead a full
Jewish life only in Israel, Cohen
asserted that "in fact, there is
greater opportunity outside Israel
to maintain one's Jewish identity
without public scrutiny and surveil-
lance." He added that "there is an
enormous advantage in not living
in the goldfish bowl of Isarel as
far as leading a Jewish life is
concerned." He argued that "an
American Jew can live a rich and
complex Jewish life without public
visibilty and wthout the need of
public endorsement."
In Israel, he contended, "this
remains impossible, in part be-
cause Israel's society today de-
mands not unity but unanimity."
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The result, he said, is that there
is a kind of monolithic aspect to
Israeli society that needs a kul-
turkampf to bring' about change."
Those views were strongly chal-
lenged by Prof. David Landes of
Harvard University and by two
Israelis — Dan Leon of the Jewish
Agency and Dr. Nathan Lerner,
executive director of the Israel
branch of the World Jewish Con-
gress.
Prof. Landes asserted that the
American attachment to Israel
represented "a healthy instinct."
He declared that the founding
of Israel had been a "watershed"
in American Jewish life, bring-
ing about a change in the charac-
ter of American Jews and open-
ing "a new dimension" in Dias-
pora life.
Prof. Landes argued that there
was far more dissent and criticism
in Israel than in any other new
country in history. He criticized
as "a gross distortion" the use of
such "Apocalyptic" language as
"totalitarian" to describe Israeli
intellectual life. Leon and Lerner
agreed that there was "ample dis-
cussion" in Israel on many prob-
lems vital of Jewish life, though
in some cases, they said, Israelis
prefer to argue crucial isues in
practical rather than in abstract
terms.
A member of the Knesset
asserted that if American Jews
did not turn "inward" and aban-
don their stress on "universalis-
tic values such as civil rights
and the peace movement," Jew-
ish life in the United States was
more likely to vanish than
flourish. That prediction was of-
fered during the dialogue by
S. Z. Abramov, a member of the
rightist Gahal coalition.
Abramov contended that Jewish
life in America could not center
Russian Jews thought about the
activities on their behalf by the
Jewish Defense League. - Prof.
Zand said Soviet Jews were divid-
ed on that question. He said his
own opinion was that such hostile
actions as those of the JDL were
harmful in respect to Russian pub-
lic opinion. He added that youth
in Russia might support Jewish
revival but that they would not
accept demonstrations against
Soviet cultural teams and artists
abroad.
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New Inflation Trend Seen
JERUSALEM (JTA) —Currency
in circulation in Israel increased
by nearly 15 per cent in the last
six months, Treasury sources dis-
closed. They said the cause was
mainly deficit budgeting by the
government, which borrowed more
than $350,000,000 from the Bank of
Israel during April, May and June.
Offical circles said there was
no alternative to new taxes, which
will remove from the economy the
inflationary purchasing power put
into it. Estimates are that the new
taxes will be designed to secure
an additional $175,000,000-$255,000,-
00Qoper year.
. Fatah Trains Turks
ISTANBUL (ZINS)—According
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around Israel alone and needed' a r
vital and authentic Jewish com-
munity in the United States. Earl
Raab, a socioligist, executive direc-
tor of the Jewish Community Re-
lations Council of San Francisco,
also stressed the "danger" to Jew-
ish life in the U.S. which he said
was inherent to the American
trend toward becoming "a true
cultural melting pot" for the first
time in U.S. history. He said that
development posed a threat to the
maintenance of group identity in
the United States in general and
to Jewish identity in particular, not
becauset of anti-Semitism but be-
cause the environment was one
"increasingly hostile" to the asser-
tion of senarate ethnic identifi-
cation. Prof. Irving Louis of Rut-
gers University drew a distinction
between the political tasks of Israel
as a Jewish state and the moral
and cultural tasks of the Jewish
people.
A participant in the dialogue
today was Dr. Michael Zand, the
Soviet Jewish scholar who arrived
in Israel last month after suffer-
ing considerable harassment by
Soviet authorities in his efofrts to
obtain an exit permit. He told the
participants that the revival of
Jewish aspirations among Soviet
Jews was primarily one of young
Russian Jews "who never knew
before" the Six-Day War that they
were Jews.
Abie Nathan, Israel's "peace
pilot," asked Prof. Zand what
THE DETROIT JEWISH N
10—Friday, August 6, 1971
to the Istanbul daily, Milliyet,
Arab guerrilla leader Yassir Ara-
fat has confirmed that approxi-
mately 100 Turks are training in.
Palestinian guerilla camps.
Asked wherther Al Fatah was
involved in the kidnaping and mur-
der of Israel's consul general,
Ephraim Elrom, Arafat said, "Our
organization is not responsible for
the acts of volunteers who train
in our camps, after they return
home."
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