The Jewish Story: 1945-55: The Reorganization of American Zionism - part III

first comes thought says napoleon hill then organization of that thought into ideas and plans then transformation of those plans into reality the beginning as you observe is in your imagination well we're far from the beginning of this story but my imagination is always present because i'm rob mike foyer and this is the jewish story episode 11 the golden decade part 3 reorganizing american zionism [Music] you know when i was growing up zionism and the holocaust were the main substance of my jewish education and that's not to say that all i learned was six million people died so either i'd better marry a jew or move to israel or best both but all the content that i did acquire as a public school kid active in the conservative movement youth group after school hebrew school summer camp etc was framed by these two realities we touched on the role of the holocaust in forming post-war american jewish identity last episode and though in my opinion we only scratched the surface i'm gonna put it aside right now in order to address the other piece zionism because it was by no means obvious that zionism would achieve the centrality that eventually did amongst american jews i mean just go back to the first two episodes of this season and you can trace a bit of its early evolution and you'll have to wait until we talk about 1967 to see how it truly won the war so to speak but for now i want to focus on the fact that despite its great victory in 1948 or even perhaps because of it zionism was on the ropes in the immediate wake of israeli independence and it had little to do with the practical problems of infiltration mass immigration economic embargoes that we've discussed because those are issues of state which of course the zionist movement was involved in but the problem the movement faced as a movement was actually success achieving a jewish homeland within the palestine mandate had been their purpose ever since the first zionist congress led by herzl himself adopted the basil program in 1897 and now they'd actually done it and i know that our topic today is reorganization of american zionism but in order to understand that process i think we need to begin with the 23rd zionist congress which was held in jerusalem in 1951 it was actually the first meeting of the world organization post-independence in fact the first meeting for five years and in the intervening years jewish life had undergone a revolution in truth several of them and most critically for our story was the revolution of the birth of the state that came together with the destruction of european jewry because the center of gravity of world jewry had shifted it shifted from europe to the new world and it did so just as that independent jewish state was born which meant that a central issue of this conference would be how to manage israel diaspora relations without the buffer of the old core of european zionist loyalists because those loyalists shared the israeli zionist assumption that exile was an unnatural state which must be erased in order that the jews achieve a new normal or even be redeemed it was a feeling not exactly shared in the new world so the convention was held in binyane uma where i hope you've been at the time the brand new national convention center and as befits the economic chaos of the early 50s the delegates had to weave their way through the scaffolding which still covered the building under construction apparently they did cease building for all important discussions and there were three primary issues on this meeting of the world zionist congress first was the clarification of the status of the world zionist organization now that the israeli government actually existed this is actually a complex and messy question which has a long history in particular in relation to the organized american jury but i don't want to focus on it today it's kind of uh in the details suffice to say that the zionists world zionist organization felt that they should now be recognized by the state of israel as the sole representatives of world jewry including of course where the bulk of world jury was in america and obviously the non-zionists who were by far the majority in the us were not interested in seeding control of israel relations or the massive fundraising mechanisms that went along with it to a minority of zionist loyalists so maybe we'll get to that later maybe not but that's one issue you should just know was roiling the ranks of american institutional jewry the next issue on the agenda was an urgent appeal for halluciut for a pioneer spirit in fact the renewal of and recommitment to that pioneering spirit that had transformed the jewish presence in the land from a handful of poor farmers to a thriving state in 30 40 years now this was an appeal that went out both israeli and world jury but while israeli jews were urged to carry on the ethics of collectivism and self-sacrifice that had taken them this far diaspora jews heard a call to come home and this call for aliyah might sound strange considering that as we spoke about in 1951 the state seemed to be in danger of founding under the weight of mass emigration but as eliahu dabkin the jewish agency executive member in charge of immigration pointed out in the meeting most of the immigrants from the muslim countries would arrive within the next three years and then where would the next wave come from it wasn't only a quantitative issue how are we going to keep our sort of population edge over the arab world he saw it as a qualitative problem as well american jews in particular had the professional educational and cultural resources that he saw as critical to israel's ability to continue a high pace of economic development and he declared that nothing less than 5 000 american jews a year with suffice but even as he said it he knew that his appeal would fall on deaf ears as he said even american zionists were quote trembling in fear lest their children be infected by aliyah sound familiar to anyone out there now dabkin's words about aliyah caused quite a stir in the american and british delegations and we'll explore the truth of the matter shortly when we shift focus to the american perspective but in reality this call for aliyah and even the call for hallow tsud for the renewing of the pioneering spirit was really a subsidiary of the third and most profound question that the congress had to address and that's one which caused outright chaos because in addition to renegotiating the status of the world zionist organization in light of israeli independence and calling for a renewal of the pioneering spirit the 23rd zionist congress was tasked with redefining the purpose of zionism itself now you may recall that the definition of zionism offered by the basel program from 1897 had been simple and direct and at this point almost completely achieved quote zionism seeks to secure for the jewish people a publicly recognized legally assured homeland in palestine and the 23rd congress was now looking for a similar statement one that could guide the movement to its next achievement because they weren't ready to pack their bags declare victory and go home and the initial proposal for what they were calling the jerusalem program to replace the basal program was quote the redemption of the jewish people through the in-gathering of exiles i got to tell you it strikes a chord with me that at this point zionism saw its purpose as redemption but when the proposal went to committee and the discussions really began it appeared that redemption was far from agreed upon as an aim especially not if it depended on the in-gathering of the exiles because at heart the jews of israel and those of america and great britain shared a very different definition of exile rose halperin president of hadassah women which was a large and extremely powerful american zionist organization declared to the whole plenary we do not accept the concept that we are in exile jews are in exile where they live in fear or in torture or they cannot leave their countries and immigrate freely to israel jews in the united states are part of the diaspora where we live in freedom now despite her words israeli and the remaining few european zionists warned the americans darkly of the lessons of jewish history then as now promising that they were deluding themselves if they thought that america was truly different that's a discussion we'll have to have but what they warned was the german jews had thought the same thing but american labor zionist ideologue hein greenberg spat right back at them that if america ever became a fascist country bent on exterminating the jews then israel would prove no safe haven either quote if that was the prognosis of a universal sodom and gomorrah what then would be the chances of israel in such a vortex sweeping all mankind into the abyss of wickedness and evil kind of brings a chill when you read the news doesn't it so this controversy over a redefinition of zionism raged for six days in the congress's commission on fundamental problems moderate israelis sided with the british and americans while an unlikely union of the right-wing root delegates joined the mapam communists to hold out for a maximus redemptive vision in the end it was actually dr nahum goldman head of the jewish agency executive and unofficial leader of american zionism who proposed a compromise in his eyes three years after the establishment of the jewish state was too soon to formulate the ultimate aims of the movement he himself he said was for the redemption of the jewish people as the true aim of zionism but now was the time to show statesmanship by avoiding a definition of aims and concentrating instead on tasks and the result was the statement called tasks of zionism which declared quote the task of zionism is the strengthening of the state of israel the in-gathering of the exiles in arid israel and the fostering of the unity of the jewish people the attacks were immediate and harsh people threw charges of cowardice and treachery at each other people still objected to the idea that the in-gathering of the exiles was at all relevant even though it had been uncoupled from the purpose of zionism but perhaps most telling the criticism came from eliezer perry the mapam spokesman who said that indeed his party would vote for the majority proposal if their own amendment was defeated in order to advance the zionist cause and maintain unity buddy warned the failure to state the aim of zionism as the redemption of the jewish people was a quote reduction of the image of zionism just as the basal program was revolutionary so must an equally revolutionary program emerged from the jerusalem congress but in the end it did not the jerusalem program that did emerge from the 23rd congress was pragmatic rather than visionary it called the world jewry as you heard and chiefly amongst americans to lend a hand in building the state and gathering the exiles but it sought to maintain jewish unity by leaving the difficult question of purpose for another day if we're going to speak about the reorganization of american zionism then we have to touch on the distinction between zionists non-zionists and anti-zionists now at this point in the golden decade zionists america are what they've always been members of the political and cultural movement founded by herzl whose arc we've been tracing frankly since midway through season two go back and look it up right except that as we just saw with the 23rd congress it's not entirely true that this arc continues on its way the struggle between vision and action that consume the 23rd congress is taking place independently within american zionism as well and despite the compromise reached in jerusalem which removed the link between the redemption of the jewish people and the in-gathering of the exiles in fact it took redemption off the plate right and therefore took the immediate pressure off of anyone who wanted to remain a zionist from getting on a plane right away and going to israel nevertheless american zionists will still have to answer the question of where do i belong can i rightly call myself a zionist if the movement has achieved a state whether as end goal or not and i still live in cleveland and if i choose not to participate in the in gathering how as a zionist do i fulfill the other two elements of the congress task declaration to strengthen the state of israel and foster the unity of the jewish people we're going to wait to the end of the episode to take a look at one critical path definitive even that the american zionist movement took in order to fulfill those tax so for now let's just hold the question what does it look like to be a zionist if i'm not living in israel in 1950. okay so in order to understand the next subset of american jews the anti-zionists i need to reframe the where do i belong question on a less personal and more philosophical scale if israel after 1948 is now the nation state of the jews does that mean that the jewish nation by definition resides there and if so then is every jew in america a de facto member of an other nation-state this is the theoretical question that underlies that deep fear of dual loyalty which haunted the minds of many american jews even before this date was born and has made a strong comeback in our day so you add to this sort of fear of dual loyalty and the questions around which nation i belong to now that there's a jewish nation-state the fact that there were many jews in america who denied the existence of a jewish nation all together it was a position that was particularly bound up with roots of the reform movement you may recall that pivotal document of the movement its 1885 pittsburgh platform which amongst other things declared quote we consider ourselves no longer a nation but a religious community and therefore expect neither a return to palestine nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of aaron nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the jewish state and because of such roots it came as little surprise that when the national conference of american rabbis passed a resolution in the height of world war ii supporting the creation of a jewish army and ultimately in the same year expressed approval of the biltmore platform that called for the foundation of a jewish state a group of more than 90 rabbis led by the prominent san francisco reform rabbi irving reichert split from the conference to reform what was called the american council for judaism a c j yes i know another a c j g c a g c it's confusing but the american council for judaism it was an organization devoted to combating jewish nationalism and to write her personally it embodies his declaration that judaism is a religion and a religion only his goal was essentially that of the pittsburgh platform and of the classic reform movement the integration of jews into american society as a community of faith americans of the mosaic persuasion and as the struggle in the land of israel heated up and european jewry burn reichardt actually declared quote zionism was a retreat from the highway of jewish destiny and achievement in america to the dead-end street of medieval ghettoism one wonders what the gentile world makes of all this zionism it is notorious that anti-semites when other arguments fail sometimes succeed in prejudicing even friendly christians against the jew by quoting this type of nationalistic propaganda to convict us out of our own mouths for being a nationality embedded within a nation too dangerous a parallel between the insistence of zionist spokesmen upon nationality and race and blood and sinister pronouncement by fascist leaders in european dictatorships we may live to regret it now the question of dual loyalty definitely needs to be considered as do some of his concerns about jewish nationalism there but perhaps not while war is consuming the jews of israel and the holocaust the jews of europe and reichert and his supporters were labeled the 90s remember there were 91 of them by the zionist movement cementing the antagonism that existed between these two poles of american jewry i say polls but in reality reichert and the anti-zionists of the acj i can't even say it were heavily outnumbered by active zionists not to mention the non-dinos in the middle and of course despite their opposition a jewish state did indeed come to be in 1948 even after israel declared dependence the american council of judaism continued its anti-zionist now anti-israel campaign it's a painful reality that actually led to the resignation of several of its founding members now its position was post 48 that to american jews israel was not the state or homeland of the jewish people but simply a foreign country and so the acj switched its focus from opposing independence to battling what they called the political influence of zionism upon american jewry for almost four years reichert fought to hold the acj together and prevent what he called the zionizing of american jew zionism he claimed uses the sight of israel to subvert our american view of judaism and herd us into a new ghetto in a sort of prescient sense at least viewed from today he had the idea that the battleground between zionist and anti-zionist ideology would be the universities and in a 1949 speech he actually drew thinly veiled comparisons between the hitler youth and the zionist programs which are aimed at college students declaring jewish nationalism quote a totalitarian movement with its tentacles in all of our personal lives the council didn't just fight on the educational front they also waged war against american jewish fundraising for israel and in particular against the merging of zionist fundraising organizations with local community boards today when the local communities raise money some portion of it generally goes to israel as the 50s progressed they actually built friend relations with the state department under john foster dulles and even loudly supported efforts by the chair of the senate for relations committee to have american lobbyists for israel legally registered as foreign agents now as dire as this may sound the acj and the anti-zionism that it represented shrank dramatically after 1948 and the stunning victory of the six day war in 1967 which united american jury behind israel essentially erased the organization and their worldview in fact i wouldn't have bothered to include them at all except as a footnote in the jewish story if their worldview wasn't on track today to replace zionism as the mainstream posture of american jewry that's an important question of how that happened but it's a discussion for another time because for right now we touch the zionists who will come back to i gave you a picture of the anti-zionists and so it's on to the majority of jews in the golden decade the non-zionists you can differentiate a non-zionist from an anti-zionist kind of in the same way you could differentiate an anti-semite from a non-semite one actually has an antagonism the other one's agnostic i'm just not for or against but nevertheless there were tensions between the non-zionists and the zionist movement as well as the state of israel those problems really were rooted in the same issues of immigration and identity which were there from the start you know president heim weitzman's speech at the opening of the constituent assembly in the february of 1949 received worldwide press coverage you want to go back to episode 7 of this season you can get the context but it may have been only amongst american jewish non-zionist leadership that weitzman's speech actually made waves he was quoted in english as saying that the state of israel had been earned by all of the hardships weariness sorrow and tribulations that have been our portion during the past 70 years when one-third of our nation was annihilated it was that last phrase one third of our nation was annihilated that caused jacob blaustein newly appointed president of the american jewish committee to address a formal complaint to eliah israeli ambassador in washington the american jewish community as i hope you recall was at this point the oldest largest and most powerful of jewish communal institutions and as a non-zionist umbrella organization it was constantly fighting an internal battle to reconcile the strident fears of the anti-zionists in its ranks and the ardent demands of the zionists among them and blaustein in his letter reminded the ambassador that both he and his predecessor had spoken directly with prime minister ben gurion president weitzman even foreign minister moshe sharat immediately after independence and they'd all agreed together on the principle that quote the israeli government speaks only for its citizens and that jews of other countries are not part citizen of that nation and therefore he complained what president weissman ought to have said is one-third of the jews were annihilated and not one-third of our nation now this may seem like hair splitting to you and a fine degree at that even for the jews but it actually goes to the heart of the matter that most concerned american jewry of all stripes in the golden decade in the wake of israel's birth what exactly was their relationship to the nation's state of the jews and therefore what did it mean for them as americans now at first the ambassador took a conciliatory toe after all the american jewish committee represented the bulk of american jewry and even more critically the vast majority of its wealth and political power and green and the jewish agency were about to launch their four-point program in hopes of surviving the economic and logistical onslaught of mass immigration and their goal was to raise 1.5 billion dollars through intergovernmental aid united jewish appeal money private capital and a government bond issue therefore they could ill afford to alienate the non-zionists nevertheless the ambassador was the representative of a sovereign country and one not so well known for its tact or subtlety so in addition to assuring blaustein that israel would never challenge the right of american jewry to be loyal american citizens and affirming his government's commitment to speak only for its own citizens he nonetheless added that biosphere had to recognize that part of israel's resident etra its purpose for existence was to help jews in distress no matter where they lived and therefore it didn't see the edges of the nations ending at the mediterranean and the ambassador added his own quote grave concern over blausen's association with the american council for judaism which in his eyes was developing a growing cooperation with what he labeled as the most anti-semitic and anti-israel elements in america he named them as missionary groups that were operating in the middle east and agents of oil companies now this little spat was only the first of many diplomatic waves to come in november 1949 ben gurion managed to irk actually all the american jewry at once i mean the anti-zionist that was simple but in a comment aimed likely at abihill silver his american zionist nemesis he warned zionist donors that they had to adjust to the reality of a new independent state one where their money would give them no influence over sovereign state decisions well that didn't bother the non-zionists but then to the dismay of blaustein and his compatriots ben-gurion declared that israel quote promotes the gathering of the exiles from their dispersion this is the red line as i told you back at the beginning that even american zionists didn't see themselves as in exile in an exile that necessitated their immediate immigration to israel and certainly the non-zionists as well suddenly the anti-zionists within the american jewish committee opened fire on blaustein calling on him to finally wake up to the new political reality post 1948 and to see the american council for judaism as his allies and not prime minister ben gurion high-level conversations followed the ambassador with the prime minister the foreign minister jewish agency executive representatives everyone under the sun but that was all between the official high-level non-zionist jewish leadership meanwhile the american council for judaism in its anti-zionist zeal chose a new tactic rejecting what they called the ghetto diplomacy of haggling in private conferences about public issues they began a high publicity campaign to denounce the evils of zionism and its threat to american jewry one headline from the april 23 1950 edition of the new york times will suffice to show you what was going on it was a quote from morris ernst he was a prominent jewish american lawyer and co-founder by the way of the aclu the american civil liberties union and of course an active member of the american council for judaism the headline reads as follows morris warns jews making ghetto separatism as reactionary as anti-semitism lawyer tells judaism council yeah you heard me correctly if you were listening this might be the first instance of a jew publicly declaring that zionism is a reactionary movement to be fought just like anti-semitism now ultimately this publicity campaign led to a break between the american jewish community under blaustein and the council for judaism and as i said the acj was bound to fade from the american scene present revival accepted but in the early fifties thousands life as a leader and go between between the non-zionist jews and israel didn't get any easier despite his recognition that the non-zionists were the key to maintaining american political and financial support ben green just seemed unwilling or maybe unable to restrain his ideological ardor when speaking of the state in the inn gathering more statements more conversations ultimately bloustein traveled to israel on multiple occasions and ben-gurion made his way to america as well and despite their ideological differences the two men actually developed a close personal friendship and that may have been what allowed them to overcome the gaps in their worldview and forge a new model of israel diaspora relations this was the so-called blaustein ben-gurion agreement and it served its three points at least served as the foundation for the relationship between american jewry and israel at least until 1967. the formal element of their exchange took place on august 23rd 1950. it was during a speech by ben gurion welcoming the american jewish committee mission led by president blaustein and the speech itself was followed up a year later with an exchange of letters it had three points regarding the status of american jury ben gurion declared the jews of the united states as a community and as individuals have only one political attachment and that is to the united states of america they owe no political allegiance to israel number one number two he further reiterated that the state of israel represents and speaks only on behalf of its own citizens and in no way presumes represent or speak in the name of the jews who are citizens of any other country these two points define the political boundaries between american jews and israeli jews they are parts of separate nation states and whatever unites them it is not the classical model of nationalism and finally the third point that oh so touchy issue of immigration from america ben gurion commented we should like to see american jews come and take part in our effort we need their technical knowledge their unrivaled experience their spirit of enterprise their bold vision their know-how but the decision as whether they wish to come permanently or temporarily rests with the free discretion of each american jew himself we need khalotsim pioneers not only from those countries where the jews are oppressed and in exile but also the country where the jews live a life of freedom but the essence of chaluzzio of pioneering spirit is free choice they will come from among those who believe that their aspirations as human beings and as jews can best be fulfilled by life and work in israel and so despite the teeth pulling that it took to get ben gurion to agree he recognized two things american jews were not going to come on mass and they were not coming going to come because the definition of exile in america was fundamentally different for his part blaustein responded jewish communities particularly american jewry in view of its influence and strength can offer advice cooperation and help but should not attempt to speak in the name of other communities or in any way interfere in their internal affairs so here we have it the basis for american jewish life in the early era of the jewish state and it will basically carry through until 1967. anti-zionism is on its way out at least until today to the ire of the zionist movement non-zionists have actually taken the lead in the israel-american relationship that's due to their money in influence and frankly their status is the vast majority but it's also due by the way to ben gurion's desire to eliminate any zionist movement which could operate independent of the israeli leadership all that's left is clarify wither american zionism in the age of israel in early 1950 prime minister ben graham sent a trusted advisor and leading mapai party intellectual on a tour of america in order to get a firsthand account of what was happening among american jewry and his prognosis for american zionism was particularly grim quote the condition of american zionism was a cause for grave concern within a short time it was likely to disintegrate and degenerate you know once he had the information at his disposal ben gurion's assessment was even more blunt he said zionism is not undergoing a crisis it's going bankrupt now this was true for many of the reasons that we discussed but an acute crisis in 1953 offered the opportunity for the complete reorganization and therefore revitalization of the movement in america ever since the struggle for independence and even really before american jewish leaders had presented the soon-to-be state of israel as both a haven for the persecuted very appealing to the american mind and as a gutsy democracy surrounded by totalitarian arab regimes which threatened its destruction also something with which americans can resonate and of course true now this linkage between striving for israel's survival and the nobility around that cause while upholding the values of liberal america and by extension a liberal world order constituted the basis for what's called the functional consensus that held american jews together from the middle of world war ii through the defeat of nazism and right up through the establishment of the jewish state but in the later half of the golden decade that functional consensus hit a major snag in the form of the kibia retaliation rate go back to episode six in this season if you want the full story but for now just recall that this massive act of retaliation was triggered by the murder of an israeli mother and her two young children in october of 1953 and the retaliatory raid launched only two days later by the israeli armory resulted in the death of 69 jordanian civilians just recall the words of the united nations team that investigated bullet riddled bodies near the doorways and multiple bullet hits on the doors of the demolished houses indicated that the inhabitants had been forced to remain inside until their homes were blown up over them now the israeli political response ranged from the shocking to the downright absurd and it included ben gurion's attempt with an outright lie to claim that the idf had nothing to do with the attack and the condemnations reigned in from around the world not only from europe and the united states and the united nations but even from many jewish communities shocked by what they saw as an act of barbarism for the purposes of understanding the reorganization of american zionism the diplomatic response to the qibla raid created a sudden and urgent need to advocate for the righteousness of israel's cause within the united states and that in turn actually triggered a reorganization of american zionist movement itself psy kanan was a progressive newspaper man and a lawyer from cleveland who had served as a top staffer of the american jewish conference during its brief lifetime in to 1943-1949 yet just when you thought there couldn't be another acronym of ajc you got one the conference was a mildly zionist ad hoc umbrella organization which managed to unite 64 different jewish groups around the needs of both current war and post-war world jewry and when the conference dissolved cannon went on to work as the u.s communications specialist for the israel office of information until 1951 when he became the washington delegate for the american zionist council this council was yet another attempt at big tent zionism its aim was to unite as much of american jewry zionist and non-zionists behind the tasks of public relations outreach and lobbying during 1951-1952 cannon kept a close watch on the u.s political scene in particular he watched as republican dwight d eisenhower a president with unclear views on the middle east policy came into office and more worrying to pro israel activists than eisenhower himself was actually his pick for secretary of state john foster dulles because dulles made it clear from the outset that the administration's determination was quote to steer a neutral course between israel and its arab antagonists in the middle east and more disturbing even than that statement was a memorandum that was prepared for dulles by the state department staff in may of 1953 which lamented quote the existence of heavy and effective zionist pressure which has been brought to bear on both the executive and legislative branches of the american government now little did they know that they had not yet begun to feel the zionist pressure in general dulles state department identified three major issues that required resolution in order to settle the overall israeli arab conflict arab demands for border modifications the allocation of water flowing through jordan river watershed which we've got to talk about at some time and of course the resettlement or repatriation of palestinian refugees but despite the fact that the state department began almost immediately to pressure israel on these issues and in fact was in the process of cutting or suspending at least economic aid to israel over the particular issue of the water all of them paled in the face of kibya in late november 1953 as the diplomatic crisis around the raid mounted canaan actually wrote quote the qibia incident has not only undermined the moral position of the jewish people it has discredited the premises of our propaganda and has given the color of truth to arab propaganda efforts to portray israel as aggressive unfaithful to the un and brutally indifferent to the arab refugees whom it allegedly expelled but he was not one to balk from a fight and so he immediately added in his notes it serves no purpose to engage in post-mortem it is time that we pass from introspective brooding about the past and resume the offensive by restoring perspective on the near east conflict and fixing responsibility for the continuation of that conflict where it really belongs because in kanan's understanding the way to win the fight over kibia was to place it in the context of the israeli arab conflict conflict which in his eyes was primarily due to the intransigence of the arab border states by late 1953 war began to spread through washington that eisenhower suspected the israeli government was actually funding the american zionist committee for whom kanan worked and that the administration might demand them to register as the agent of a foreign power and so it became quickly clear that a new lobbying entity was needed and thus the american zionist committee for public affairs was born or as you more likely know it the american israel public affairs committee apec but a new lobbying agency that worked the hill in washington wasn't going to be enough to win this fight in the wake of the diplomatic fury around kibia nachman goldman that chairman of the executive committee of the jewish agency and as i said informal head of american jewish zionism encountered the head of the near eastern desk at the state department and this state department leader really complained to goldman that in the wake of all this qibian nonsense he had to meet with quote six different delegations of agitated jewish leaders and that he would prefer to meet with one authoritative group just like government throughout history they wanted to speak to the big jew and goldman later wrote that in the wake of this encounter he managed to persuade philip klutznick a far-sighted astute politician and rabbi morris eisendrath the dynamic leader of reformed jewry to join me in calling a conference of the presidents of all major jewish organizations with the object of creating at least a loosely structured forum for the discussion of all american israeli questions this initial gathering which he indeed succeeded in drawing together became institutionalized as what is known as the conference of presidents of major american jewish organizations it's an organization which still exists and it currently unites 51 jewish organizations focusing its lobbying on the executive branch of the american government you know it's interesting the assessment by the israeli foreign ministry of the u.s jewish supporter for israel in the immediate wake of kiblia was american jury was neither mentally nor organizationally prepared for this crisis but whoever wrote it added nevertheless it rallied within a few days and it wasn't just a rally it was a transformation because those few days laid the groundwork for the definition of zionism for decades to come the first steps had already been taken as we noted with the merger of previously rival non-zionist and zionist ideas and institutions as the harvard university historian oscar hanlon put it already in 1957 only by accepting the fact that israel and diaspora exist for their own sake and not to redeem one another could the jews of these two different camps learn to work together and their ability to work together was going to be critical for their ability to serve the purposes of the state of israel and perhaps of the jewish people as a whole so add to this the death of the anti-zionist voices and now we see what allowed for the emergence of a definition of zionism which was providing staunch and all but unquestioning support for the state of israel yes this is what american zionism now became of course some people would still get on a plane and embody that spirit of hallucio to pioneering and go to the land which they had been promised but in essence in the wake of qibla and in the golden decade american zionism became the israel lobby too weak in its 1950s infancy to change or even alter the direction of eisenhower and dulce's middle east policy nevertheless american zionism embodied as the israel lobby would see its power grow by the 60s is going to help secure u.s weapons sales and generous government assistance and into the 70s 80s and up till today it will continue to strengthen the political and strategic ties between the two nations and perhaps most significantly by not shrinking in the moment of crisis by not shying away of what they call the abyss of kibya but rather actually reorganizing around the need to defend israel specifically when israeli actions disturbed observers most these new american zionists set a pattern that remains at the heart of american zionism to this very day i just want to thank a few people before i sign off i want to thank all the folks that give their hard earned money in order to help make this show happen to keep it free and widely available and i want to invite you to join them right now you can do that in two ways you can go to my website jewishstory.co in the upper right hand corner there you can see a button that says be a patron you click on through there for a little bit of per podcast support i'm making a push to get the 100 patrons and you can help me get there we're at 75 it's so close if that's a bit too much for you now you can also sponsor a show sponsored for a loved one who's around today you can sponsor it in memory of one who's passed on i'm happy to give you the details on that send me an email at rob mike foyer gmail.com or send me a personal message through my facebook page that's rob mike foyer facebook so i also want to thank the land of israel network that's the land of israel.com for creating a network that allows me to reach so many amazing people i want to thank pardace institute p-a-r-d-e-s dot org dot il for building an educational institution that gives me the privilege of touching the hearts and minds of so many wonderful jews and i want to thank you for listening