In Pursuit o f Zionist Unity By N A T H A N IE L ZELIKOW p R O M December 5th through the 7th, some four hundred dele gates, representing all the eight Zionist parties in the United States, met together at the Hotel Roose velt in New York City in the F irst National American Zionist Assem bly. The deliberations covered the currently pressing problems which are common to all parties in the Zionist movement. The call for the assembly issued from the American Zionist Council, the organ which represents all American Zionist parties in the field of public rela tions. The composition of the as sembly, and the areas of discussion were unanimously arrived at in ad vance by agreement of all the par ties. These deliberations were dir ected in four main areas : (1) Pub lic relations; (2) Zionist interest in Jewish education; (3) Commu nity relations; and (4) Zionist in terest in Youth. Although the meeting in com mon assembly of all the diverse Zionist parties was in itself a mile stone, the underlying purpose of the assembly was not too clear, even to its sponsors. As they themselves put it they were “feeling their way.” Consciously or unconsciously, it appeared to be part of the search for a new orientation of Zionist ac tivity which some of the parties are 6
groping for and which was not ef fectively realized by the decisions of the last (23rd) Zionist Congress in Jerusalem. This failure, in great degree, was due to the opposition of the majority (Zionist Organiza tion of America and Hadassah) of the American delegates to the ad option of a positive dynamic pro gram. That Congress, it will be re called, sought a substitute goal for the Basle Program, which had en visioned primarily the creation of a political State. The State had bebecome a reality! What now was to become the fate of the instrument ality that it brought into being? Were there still unrealized goals for Zionism? Did its ideology re quire new content ? ^ ^ N E OF the primary aims of the last Zionist Congress was to furnish the answers to these and similar queries, by the adoption of a proposed “Jerusalem Program.” The content of this program had been given long and careful thought by the parties and by the Zionist Actions Committee in preparation for the Congress. It is now history that this program was not adopted. The rock which broke the plow share was the fundamental ques tion : What, if any, should be the degree of self-identification of the Jewish LIFE
