Israel versus the Diaspora

Jacob Blaustein, industrialist and president of the American Jewish Committee, who returned today from his latest mission to Israel at the invitation of prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, hailed "as a document of historic significance" the prime Minister is first official declaration clarifying the relationship between Israel and the jews in the other free democracies, especially in the United states. "The prime Minister is statement makes it clear, among other things, that without any reservations the State of Israel speaks only on behalf of its y w n citizens and in no way presumes to represent or speak in the name of jews who are citiZens of any other country; and that the Jews of the United States, as a community and as individuals, have no political attachment to Israel.

This means that the allegiance of American Jews is to America and America alone, and should put an end to any idea or allegation that there is any such thing as dual loyalty on the part of American Jewry." Israeli president Chaim Weizmann, who is convalescing in Berne, Switzerland, where Mr. Blaustein conferred with him by arrangement through the prime Minister, authorized Mr, Blaustein to say that he whole-heartedly concurs in the clarification by the prime Minister and the philosophy on -which it is based, Mr, Blaustein, who was invited to visit Israel by Mr. Ben-Gurion to confer on matters of mutual interest and to continue in personal touch with developments in the country, flew there on August 11th, accompanied by Dr. Simon Segal, director of the central office of the American Jewish Committee's Foreign Affairs Department. This was Mr. Blausteints second visit to Israel on the invitation of the premier since the new state was founded, the first having taken place in April, 19th when he and colleagues of the American jeivish Committee conferred with Mr. Ben-Gurion and members of his cabinet and surveyed Israel's physical, economic and social conditions.

"Ever since the State of Israel came into being," Mr, Blaustein declared, "there has been confusion and misunderstanding as to the relationship of Israel to Jews in other countries, particularly those in the free democracies and especially in America, part of this confusion has been due to various comments that have been made; and part to the difficulty of adjusting the idealism of a movement with the realism of an accomplished fact — to fitting into certain concepts of the past, a realistic pattern based on actual conditions of the present. This confusion was harmful, and a source of concern and apprehension; and it was of prime importance that a definitive clarification by the responsible authorities in Israel be no longer delayed. My colleagues and I had been discussing this situation, and corresponding about it, with Israeli officials for many months.; and we therefore welcomed the opportunity to go to Israel to confer with the prime Minister regarding it and other matters of mutual interestf» -

"The formal statement made by the prime Minister at the luncheon he tendered to me in Jerusalem, attended by a number of his cabinet members, the chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive, United Nations Chief of Staff General William Riley and other dignitaries, lays the foundation for better understanding, based on full respect by each community of the integrity and institutions of the others," "The prime Minister's statement goes further. He specifically states that Israel has no desire and no intention to interfere in any way with the internal affairs of Jewish communities in other countries and that the latter's indigenous social, economic and cultural institutions are and will be respected by the Israeli Government and the Israeli people,

"The preservation of the integrity of the communities in the United States and other free democratic countries is declared to be in the best interests both of the communities themselves and of Israel," With reference to immigration from the united States and other free democracies, the prime Minister stated that Israel needs technicians with American know-how, and he hopes some will come, "but the decision as to whether they wish to come — permanently or temporarily — rests with the free discretion of each American Jew himself; it is entirely a matter of his own volition."

Mr, Blaustein returned from Israel convinced that that country "is the best friend America ever had in the Near East," "Probably the most overwhelming and satisfying impression that one gains in Israel is that the people there are building a real democracy," Mr Blaustein stated. "For America and the other free democracies, it is of enormous significance to have in Israel not only a democratic form of government but a way of life that is based on democratic and humane values. This, in a strategic part of the world where liberal democracy is otherwise practically unknown and where the prevailing social and political conditions may be potential dangers to international security and stability, - more - - k- "As an American and a Jew I am gratified that the Israeli people want democracy and in my opinion vail not accept any dictatorship or totalitarianism from within or from without. I believe our country will continue to encourage this newest democracy and I am confident that the vast majority of American Jewry will continue to recognize the necessity and desirability of helping to make Israel a strong, viable, self-supporting state and will do its full part toward that objective.

This for the sake of Israel itself and the good of the world." In addition to a series of private conferences with the prime Minsister while in Israel, Mr. Blaustein also conferred with the Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett, Minister of Labor Mrs. Golda Meyerson, former Israeli Ambassador to the united States (now Minister to Great Britain) Eliahu Elathj and also met with leading Israeli officials (including Minister of Supply and Rationing Dov Joseph and Minister of Justice pinchus F. Rosen) and with leaders of finance, industry and labor.

As a leading American industrialist, Mr. Blaustein counselled with Finance Minister Kaplan and Director-General of the Treasury David Horoxvitz regarding the many economic, rehabilitation and reconstruction problems facing Israel. Mr. Blaustein declared he found himself profoundly impressed by the progress which has been made in Israel since his last visit eighteen months ago. "During the last year 10,000 new small houses were built for the new immigrants alone. Agricultural production has increased since the establishment of the State by nearly 70%, and we were informed that nearly as many agricultural settlements have been set up in the last two years as during all the years under the British Mandate." "Jerusalem, which I last visited in April 1949 after the siege which had almost reduced the city to starvation, has lost its ghost-town appearance. Today, 35,000 new immigrants have been settled in Jerusalem and the city is active and - more - dynamic.

New industries have been created and the Exposition of Jerusalem's Handicrafts and Industries which took place during my stay there showed an almost unbelievable picture of ingenuity and enterprise on the part of hundreds of small business men and manufacturers who have brought their knowledge and skill from the four corners of the earth, "With great pioneering tenacity and skill the Israelis are making the Negev bloom. Fresh water wells have been located in this former desert area, and an outlet to the Red Sea has been created at the new town of Elath, where the first ships ever to reach there in recorded history have already arrived with cargo and settlers,"

Mr. Blaustein asserted that the incredible increase in population — over 10% since the establishment of the State-is largely responsible for the enormous economic problems facing the nation, "However, the greatest wealth of Israel is its people, Jews are streaming into that little country from places where they have been discriminated against and persecuted. They are coming by the thousands from the countries behind the iron Curtain whenever they are permitted to leave, in the last few months the largest number have come from Roumania." in addition to conferring with Israeli Government officials and leaders of finance, industry and labor, Mr, Blaustein held conferences with U,S•Ambassador James G. MacDonald; U,S, Charge d«Affairs Richard Ford and other members of the American Embassy, and Hon. Ely palmer, U.S. member of the United Nations Palestine Conciliation Commission,

I am introducing no new idea; on the contrary, it is a very old one. It is a universal idea--and therein lies its power--old as the people, which never, even in time of bitterest calamity, ceased to cherish it. This is the restoration of the Jewish State. It is remarkable that we Jews should have dreamt this kingly dream all through the long night of our history. Now day is dawning. We need only rub the sleep out of our eyes, stretch our limbs, and convert the dream into a reality.

...Recalling still how vigorous the seedHidden within your luckless plot of ground,And what the treasure which it might have broughtHad but a ray of sunlight warmed the soil,What sheaves we might have reaped, had but a gustOf generous air blown o'er you — had the roadWhich leads toward the Torah, which we soNeglected and despised, been cleared and plain!How pitiful and bitter is your end!Oh, woe is me for you, my hapless folk.How parched the lot, and blasted how the portion,Wherein such grain could moulder and decay!

[W]e are a parasitic people. We have no roots in the soil, there is no ground beneath our feet. And we are parasites not only in an economic sense, but in spirit, in thought, in poetry, in literature, and in our virtues, our ideals, our higher human aspirations. Every alien movement sweeps us along, every wind in the world carries us. We in ourselves are almost non-existent, so of course we are nothing in the eyes of other people either.

Exile is one with utter dependence - in material things, in politics and culture, in ethics and intellect, and they must be dependent who are an alien minority, who have no Homeland and are separated from their origins, from the soil and labor, from economic creativity. So we must become the captains of our fortunes, we must become independent - not only in politics and economy but in spirit, feeling and will.

A central axis of an all-embracing viewpoint that defines the self-consciousness of the Jews in Israel, [the negation of exile] informs their conception of history and collective memory, as well as cultural practices that both fashion and reflect Zionist-Israeli identity.

The rejection of Jewish life in the Diaspora—shlilat ha-golah—is a central assumption in all currents of Zionist ideology. … In its most extreme formulation, the idea of shlilat ha-golah implies that the condition of exile will ultimately destroy the Jewish people, first of all in the moral and spiritual sense, and afterward in the physical sense as well, whether by discrimination and persecution, or by total assimilation.

You can’t sit in Manhattan and be a Zionist just because you like oranges, falafel and come here once a year to argue in Jerusalem about ‘Where is Zionism going?’ There is only one answer: Zionism is going on here. Zionism as I see it exists only in its practical form. And as a person who likes shoes isn’t a shoemaker, so a Jew who likes Israel isn’t a Zionist.

Ironically, in the debates about the “negation of the Diaspora,” both sides, Zionist and anti-Zionist, have shared a premise: “exile” as a defining category of Jewish existence was over. In the first part of the 20th century, the inferiority, indeed the perils, of Diaspora life were hotly debated by Zionists, Diasporists, and anti-Zionists. They fought vehemently in the American press about Zionism and the future of Jews and Judaism... They argued about the value of Diaspora—but they all agreed that with America and Israel, exile was essentially over.

Thus the debates around the negation of the Diaspora were between two Jewish alternatives living in what each, for different reasons, determined was a “post-exilic” era. Zionists and Diasporists both rejected, in some fashion, the notion that “exile” remained an operative category of Jewish existence. The Zionists mostly believed exile had ended and thus immigration to the land was necessary. Diasporists believed “exile” had ended, and now Jews in the Diaspora could live in a safe state of “dispersion,” golah, and not galut, exile...

The Diasporists envision the end of exile as the end of oppression in the Diaspora, a fact that may include the existence of a sovereign Jewish state, while Zionists envision the end of exile as the end of the Diaspora, leaving only the Jewish state.

For so populous are the Jews that no one country can hold them, and for that reason they settle in the most populous and most prosperous cities in Europe and Asia and while they believe that the sacred city [of Jerusalem], where the Holy Temple of the Most High God is established, to be their mother-city, yet they consider the various cities which they have inhabited from the time of their fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfather and ancestors still farther back, where they were born and reared, to be their fatherlands.

I have complete and unbridled faith in both the Jewish People the world over and in the State of Israel. There can be no faith in either without the other, because each needs and depends on the other. Both stem from the same source in antiquity, and inherent in both is a common vision of redemption.

As Zionists, we have to reconstitute our peoplehood, reclaim our ancient homeland and revitalize our Jewish way of life. Each of these three objectives should be pursued with the end in view, both in Israel and in the Diaspora, of developing such interpersonal and intergroup relations as are likely to help us become more fully human. That is to be our religion and our mission.

[To succeed in reconstituting the Jewish people and reclaiming The Land, Zionism] a) has to foster among the Jews both of Israel and of the Diaspora a sense of interdependence and a process of interaction; and, b) has to give the individual Jew the feeling that participating in that interdependence and interaction makes him more of a person.”

[Ultimately he argues that t​​​​he Land and its people should be a source of creativity, inspiration, culture and religion for all the Jews of the world. That said, the Diaspora is critical to remind the Jews of Israel that they are more than a mere national body, that they are a religious civilization responsible not only to their every day concerns, but to Jews around the world and Jews throughout the ages.]