PURELY COMMENTARY
Ben-Gurion
Continued from Page 2
of vital importance. He was constantly
quoted, criticizing — condemning —
Jews in the Diaspora who did not settle
in Israel. A Detroit Zionist activist took
issue with him and Ben-Gurion resorted
to the Talmud to defend his position. The
entire episode was told in a Purely
Commentary column, Detroit Jewish
News, February 1977. Here is its full
text. It was entitled, "Ben Gurion's
Zionist Ideology: His Defense in Talmidic
Lore — (Where did you get the impres-
sion that I ever said, wrote or thought
that anyone who does not live in Israel
is not a Jew?)' "
David Ben-Gurion had a
definite attitude on Zionist obli-
g4tions. He insisted that to be
truly a Zionist one must live in
Israel.
The architect of the Jewish
State aroused resentment in some
Zionist ranks for such a view.
Ben-Gurion, who thus defined the
Zionist term when he was Israel's
Prime Minister, had many dis-
putes on the subject. He resorted
to history and to Jewish tradi-
tional dedication to Eretz Isral
when defining his views.
A Detroiter who had an im-
portant role in providing defen-
sive means for Israel from the
earliest days of Israel's statehood
was among those who challenged
B-G. Harry Cohen quietly aided
the efforts for the defense of the
Palestinian Yishuv and, thereaf-
ter, with the rebirth of Israel,
with important technical pro-
visions. The story of his labors
for the redemption of Israel is yet
to be told. He continued it until a
few months ago when he gave a
$250,000 gift to the Weizmann In-
stitute of Science in Rehovot for
the establishment of a profes-
sional chair.
When David Ben-Gurion ex-
coriated Zionists for not settling
in Israel and defined a Zionist as
a Jew who settles in Israel,
Harry Cohen was resentful. He
wrote to B-G expressing his ob-
jection to a view that would
____compel him, a dedicated Zionist,
to abandon his home in Detroit,
'',whence, he believed, come his
ability to continue to aid Israel.
The Ben-Gurion response to
that criticism is a masterpiece of
logic and a frankly assertive dec-
laration. Under the date of June
21, 1961, Ben-Gurion turned to
the Talmud for a defensive
argument in replying to the De-
- troit critic. He then wrote to
Harry Cohen from the Office of
the Prime Minister in Jerusalem:
"I was astonished by the end
of your letter. Where did you get
the impression that I ever said,
wrote or thought that anyone
who does not live in Israel is not
a Jew? Moses was a Jew, al-
though he never lived in the
Land of Israel. The great figures
of medieval Jewry — Ibn
Gabirol, Maimonides, Yehuda
Halevi, and so forth — did not
live in the land of Israel. Were
they not Jews? It is not the coun-
try he lives in that makes a man
a Jew, but his origin and his feel-
ings.
"What I say is — and I do not
know whether this affects you —
that since the establishment of
the State, no one, in my opinion,
can be a Zionist unless he comes
to settle in Israel. But even in this
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