Review of the Tear - ajcarchives.org · curtailing freedom of expression, also were widely debated. Realizing the limited efficacy of legislation alone, educators, acting in unison

PART TWO

Review of the Tear

-THE YEAR IN RETROSPECT-

By Salo W. Baron—

IT IS RATHER VENTURESOME to undertake a brief historicappraisal of a year just passed while the historic perspective isstill lacking. No doubt many events which appear extremelyimportant today will be minimized by future historians, andmany obscure happenings to which we, the contemporaries,pay little heed, may well prove in the long run of vital signifi-cance. And yet such an appraisal itself may not be devoid ofvalue, inasmuch as it points up the thinking of a generation onits own problems.

The year 5707 was filled with dramatic developments inthe political sphere. The Palestine situation, in particular,has focused the world's attention. The spread or contractionof anti-Semitic movements has also been a matter of deepconcern to the Jewish community and liberal forces every-where. The peace treaties concluded with several Axisnations, preliminary discussions on the future of Germany andAustria, and deliberations of various United Nations bodiesconcerning the implementation of the Charter provisions forhuman rights were other landmarks in the year's politicalevolution which were likely permanently to affect the destiniesof the Jewish people.

The Palestine Problem

The most significant denouements in the Palestinian dramahave been the progressive deterioration in British-Zionistrelations and the ensuing submission of the whole problem ofthe Palestine Mandate to the United Nations. The MandatoryPower long refused to budge from the policy laid down bythe White Paper of 1939 and effectively sabotaged therecommendations of the Anglo-American Commission ofInquiry. Under the combined pressure of world opinion andPresident Truman, however, the British Government succes-

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sively devised the so-called Morrison-Grady federalizationplan and Foreign Secretary Bevin's cantonization plan. Thelatter plan marked not only a considerable relaxation ofBritain's intransigence, but also extended to the Jewish leadersthe bait of admission of 100,000 immigrants every two yearsduring an experimental five-year period. The Jewish Agencyand even non-Zionist Jewish bodies felt, nevertheless, that,apart from representing a new phase in the British Govern-ment's delaying tactics, these plans would impose unbearableshackles on the permanent growth of the Jewish NationalHome and seriously impede large-scale immigration. In fact,the opening of Palestine's gates to the entry of countlessthousands of Jewish survivors of Nazi persecution was con-sidered an urgent humanitarian necessity by Jews and liberalnon-Jews alike. That is why the two London conferences ofSeptember 1946 and January-February 1947 were attendedonly by Arab delegates but were boycotted by the JewishAgency. Long at loggerheads with the Agency, the BritishGovernment hoped to attract to these conferences representa-tives of other Jewish organizations. But this attempt atdividing the Jewish people and discrediting the Agency failedutterly.

The British Government finally decided to submit thePalestine problem to the "nations of the world in council,"to use an old Herzlian phrase. Although the risk of whollyadverse decisions was mitigated by the British Common-wealth's great influence in the United Nations and a possibleultimate recourse to a British veto in the Security Council,governmental spokesmen informed Parliament that Britainwould not necessarily be bound by the United Nations'ruling. To offset British fears, real or pretended, at havingto enforce a United Nations decision, the UN may have toconsider the establishment of an international trusteeship, thedevelopment of a new executive machinery to replace themandatory administration and the establishment of an inter-national police force to impose its will upon all recalcitrantparties. It is small wonder that the UN found this task thrustupon it rather embarrassing. With the existing sharp conflictsbetween member states and, especially, the overshadowingdivision between the Soviets and the Anglo-American alliance,

THE YEAR IN RETROSPECT 105

which recently induced the Soviet Union to use the desperateexpedient of a veto seven times in one week, the UnitedNations organization itself was fighting a bitter struggle forsurvival. It certainly had to proceed gingerly in asserting itsauthority against any major power and, especially, one of theBig Three.

Nevertheless, the UN Secretariat and Assembly coura-geously and with considerable dispatch tackled the Britishproposal. To avoid the usual delays between the annualmeetings of the Assembly, a special session was convoked forApril-May 1947. Sensing the unfairness of having the Arabcase presented by several member states while the Jewishpeople, devoid of state sovereignty, could not be formallyrepresented, the Assembly secured a hearing for the JewishAgency before its Political Commission which, composed ofdelegates of all member nations, was but nominally differentfrom the Assembly itself. This was a truly historic occasion.Not only was a representative Jewish body accorded a sort ofsemi-sovereign status, but for the first time in history didorganized humanity convene in a special two-week session tosurvey the problems of the National Home in relation to thegeneral status of world Jewry. This session, to be sure, gaveArab delegates the opportunity to vent their extreme nation-alist opposition to any further Jewish immigration and toindulge in occasional overt or implied Jew-baiting. But italso enabled many forward-looking statesmen to voice theirgenuine humanitarian concern for the fate of uprooted millionsand their realization of the Assembly's own responsibility forthe new moral order in international affairs. The addressdelivered at its conclusion by Andrei Gromyko, the chiefRussian delegate, created a major sensation. By recognizingthe right of the Jewish people in Palestine and suggesting theestablishment of a bi-national state or, if that were impossible,partition into Arab and Jewish states, this speech marked,despite its obvious tactical implications, a basic departurefrom the traditionally anti-Zionist Soviet policy.

The Special Committee appointed by the Assembly toprepare a comprehensive report for its annual meeting inSeptember had many strengths and weaknesses. It was quitereasonable to entrust the report to representatives of smaller,

106 AMERICAN JEWISH YEAR BOOK

more or less neutral states. If the great powers were repre-sented on this Committee, as they are on most other com-mittees of the United Nations and as was indeed suggested bythe Soviet delegate, Britain would have ha'd to act, in thewords of its chief spokesman, in the double capacity of judgeand party. More significantly, the Committee would havebeen encumbered by all the basic antagonisms and imperialistclashes which have marred the recent negotiations of the BigThree and so seriously interfered with the general progress ofthe United Nations. On the other hand, by entrusting thetask to representatives of lesser powers, the Assembly has,from the outset, given their deliberations a certain appearanceof uncertainty and made their anticipated report far moretentative in its effects than it might otherwise have been. Atthis writing the Committee report has just been submitted tothe UN Secretariat and the world is anxiously awaiting theforthcoming deliberations at the Assembly's regular Septembersession.

British-Zionist Conflict

In the meantime the British-Zionist conflict—some extrem-ists began calling it an Anglo-Jewish war—has led to increas-ingly harsh anti-Zionist measures on the part of the Britishadministration and, in turn, to increasing "terrorism" on thepart of some Palestine extremists. The Palestine adminis-tration cast aside all restraints in dealing with individual"terrorists" when apprehended (for the first time in years itexecuted such idealistic political "criminals" as Dov Gruner,despite world-wide Jewish and non-Jewish pleas for mercy),in retaliating against the Jewish Agency and the Jewishcommunity at large, and in violently combatting the so-calledillegal Jewish immigration. The blowing up of the KingDavid Hotel, the Acre Prison break and, more recently, theexecution of two British sergeants by an underground ex-tremist court; the imprisonment of four members of theJewish Agency, an endless series of searches, forcible evic-tions of landlords and tenants, curfews and martial law en-actments, the establishment of large prison-like camps onCyprus and, most recently, the tragedy of the Exodus—haveall highlighted the untenable political situation in the country.


The reaction of the Jewish public at large to these eventsrevealed differences of opinion in regard to both ultimate aimsand immediate tactical approaches. Such differences ofopinion came very strongly to the fore even in the deliberationsof the historic Zionist Congress which met in Basle after awar-imposed break of seven years. But almost all the numer-ous Jewish factions, in and outside the Zionist movement,agreed wholeheartedly that the 100,000 Displaced Personsshould gain immediate admission to Palestine, as recom-mended by the Anglo-American Commission of Inquiry, tobe followed by further waves of Jewish migrants whoseelemental drive toward the land of their forefathers has shownfew signs of weakening in the face of protracted delays andfrequent disappointments. Since, in view of Arab intransi-gence, bi-nationalism held out little promise of a workablesolution, more and more Jews, even among the non-Zionists,became convinced that the creation of some sort of Jewishstate in Palestine had become a historic necessity.

Anti-Semitism

One of the by-products of the British-Zionist conflict wasan increase in anti-Jewish feeling in the United Kingdom andother parts of the British Empire. The tension created by thenews from Palestine about "terrorist" attacks on Britishsoldiers and civilians played into the hands of Fascist groups,which had practically lost their following during Britain's hourof trial. Apart from Bevin's verbal indiscretions, however, theBritish and Dominion Governments have tried to suppress theoccasional local outbursts of anti-Jewish feeling. Enlightenedexponents of public opinion, too, and the leadership of Britishand Dominion churches (with minor exceptions) have beenmore keenly aware than ever before of the dangerous implica-tions of anti-Semitism for their own world outlook. Theresolutions adopted by the International Conference of Jewsand Christians which met in Oxford in 1946, and the programsdevised by the resuscitated World Council of Churches, weresome of the numerous manifestations of the concerted will ofenlightened Christian leadership to prevent the spread of racialand religious prejudice.


Keen observers have indeed noted a marked decline in overtanti-Semitic propaganda in the United States and other lands.According to a well-informed Jewish leader, it no longer paysto be a professional anti-Semite in America. Both the numer-ical strength and readiness to financial sacrifice of the followingof such well-known rabble rousers as Gerald L. K. Smith havegreatly dwindled. Some Jew-baiting periodicals have sus-pended publication; others have sustained serious reverses inboth circulation and effectiveness. Acts of vandalism insynagogues and other Jewish institutions have diminished infrequency and intensity. At the same time the public at largehas become growingly aware of the need of both short- andlong-range programs to combat this menace to democraticsociety. Several states and cities in the United States passedlaws prohibiting discrimination in employment. Measuresdesigned to outlaw discrimination in public resorts and restric-tive real estate covenants, as well as extend protection togroups by allowing them to sue for group libel without undulycurtailing freedom of expression, also were widely debated.Realizing the limited efficacy of legislation alone, educators,acting in unison with political and ecclesiastical leaders,initiated a variety of educational programs intended to combatprejudice among the masses and particularly among schoolchildren during their formative age. Variations of the Spring-field Plan were adopted in many cities all over the country,textbooks were revised with a view toward eliminating objec-tionable passages and Brotherhood Week was widely andsolemnly observed. Scholarly research into the psychological,historical and sociological factors promoting anti-Semitismhas penetrated somewhat more deeply into its basic causes andthereby begun opening new vistas on effective counteraction.As against these solid gains, the partial revival of the Ku KluxKlan and the much-publicized agitation of the Columbianswere merely warnings against excessive complacency. Despiterecurrent manifestations of the survival of anti-Jewish feelingin most countries overrun by Hitler (some informed observersspoke even of a certain post-war recrudescence of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union which had long pioneered inoutlawing it), it is quite possible, though it can never bestatistically ascertained, that, on the balance sheet, world


anti-Semitism has lost ground during the year. But the crucialtest might come only if and when the present wave of pros-perity and full employment, especially in the United States,were to give way to another world-wide depression.

Peace Treaties

While the Jews contributed greatly to the struggle againstanti-Semitism, the main advances were made by organizationsand individuals representing progressive groups in the non-Jewish world. Otherwise the political weakness of the Jewishpeople, which had just emerged from the greatest tragedy ofages, came clearly to the fore on many occasions. It was mostconspicuous during the peace conferences which led to theconclusion of peace treaties with Rumania, Hungary, Italy,Bulgaria and Finland. Although achieving an unprecedenteddegree of mutual forbearance and collaboration, the repre-sentatives of the various Jewish organizations secured but fewrealistic concessions. Their relative failure, which so sharplycontrasted with the spectacular achievements of the far moredivided Jewish delegations at the Peace Conferences of 1918-1919, was not due to any lack of well-thought-out programs,or skillful negotiators. It resulted from the simple circum-stance that in the harsh game of power politics which charac-terized most of these proceedings, the feeble voice of Jewrycould hardly make itself heard over the din of controversy.Central European Jewry was in shambles. Russian Jewry, thesecond largest in the world, exerted no influence, direct orindirect, on these negotiations. American and West EuropeanJewish leadership, on the other hand, still living under theimpact of the Nazi nightmare, concentrated its best efforts onthe solution of the Palestine problem and the securing of somefundamental human rights for each individual.

Owing to the peculiar European situation, the insistence ofmany countries on extreme national homogeneity which theysharply demonstrated by expelling their German and otherunwanted minorities, the deepening crisis between East andWest, and the new approaches initiated by the Charter of theUnited Nations, the minority rights, that much-heraldedachievement of the last Peace Conference, were hardly men-


tioned at all in the deliberations of 1946-47. The new peacetreaties with the five Axis states provide for certain safeguardsfor equality of all citizens and non-discrimination on thegrounds of race, religion, language or nationality. But at theirbest these provisions accentuated the general retrogressionfrom what some of the same countries had signed on the dottedline back in 1919.

Unlike their predecessors of the last generation, moreover,the European Jews now faced perplexing problems of resti-tution of property and rudimentary economic rehabilitationof thousands of Jewish communities which had been ruinedby the sharply discriminatory Nazi and Nazi-modelled legis-lations. Although some of the peace treaties included safe-guards for such restitution and many Continental members ofthe victorious alliance enacted restitution laws of their own,the process of restoration was painfully slow, and there is littleexpectation that the Jews will ever regain more than a tinyfraction of their losses. It is estimated, for example, that thevalue of all property held by German Jewry at the end of 1932,at the then prevailing depression prices, approximated tenbillion marks, or some 2,500,000,000 dollars at the old goldstandard. To expect the ultimate recovery of even ten per centof that amount, notwithstanding the present depreciatedpurchasing power of the dollar, would seem utterly unrealistic.Apart from the resistance of the new owners, the reluctanceof governments, in part backed only by determined minorities,to enforce such unpopular decisions, and their general fearthat by sponsoring pro-Jewish measures they would play intothe hands of their reactionary opponents, deter even intrin-sically liberal regimes from attempting to secure justice forJewish claims. In Eastern Europe there are further complica-tions arising from the general Leftist opposition to privateownership, the enormous difficulty of rebuilding the shatterednational economies and the overwhelming need of reparationson the part of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, some littleprogress has been made in this direction during the past year.Further progress may be expected, especially if the anticipatedRestitution Law should be enacted by the bizonal Anglo-American administration of western Germany before the


conclusion of a formal peace treaty, which has run up againstformidable obstacles.

Equally slow was the advance toward the world-wideadoption of safeguards for human rights. The Commission onHuman Rights appointed by the Economic and Social Councilof the United Nations has, through a sub-committee, madesome progress in drafting an International Bill of Rights. Butthe general deterioration in international relations counter-acted whatever readiness some nations might previously havedisplayed to allow the curtailment of their national sover-eignty. It seems too rash to expect, therefore, that out of thepresent deliberations will emerge an effective and enforceablecompromise between the sovereign control of every state overits domestic affairs and the protection by a supranational bodyof certain minimum rights of each individual and group. Theearlier hopes cherished by Jewish leadership (particularly theAmerican Jewish Committee) which at San Francisco, hadproved so effective in securing the inclusion of provisions forhuman rights in the United Nations Charter, must necessarilybe toned down now in the prevailing inclement atmosphereof national and imperial conflicts.

Biological Recovery

These dramatic events on the political scene have distractedthe Jewish people's attention from other, equally fundamentalfactors of their existence. Much has happened in the bio-logical, socio-economic, communal and cultural spheres which,though less spectacular, may in the long run prove of evengreater significance. As a rule not underscored by extraor-dinary events or incidents, these developments are notalways easily datable. One year is normally but a tiny linkin a very long chain of evolution.

Biologically, the Jewish people seems to have reversed itslong-range pre-war trend towards the retardation of growthand ultimate decline of its population. In the 1930's, yearafter year, statistical computations, though beset by greatuncertainties in regard to the large Jewish communities in theUnited States, Latin America, parts of the British Empire,


and elsewhere, unmistakably showed an ever-diminishingsurplus of births over deaths. All the available evidencepointed to the fact that American Jewry, for example, hadalready become stationary and was on the road to slow naturaldiminution, only partially mitigated by continued immigrationof Jews from other lands. This biological retardation was, ofcourse, deeply aggravated by the mass murder of EuropeanJewry during the war, which caused the decline of the worldJewish population from some 17,000,000 in 1939 to less than12,000,000 at the end of 1945.

In 1946-47, however, there undoubtedly was a substantialexcess of Jewish natality over mortality, although detailedfigures are available only for a few areas of Jewish settlement.In Palestine the Jewish birthrate, stimulated by the people'sconviction that this was a type of "internal migration" whichno White Paper could outlaw, may have lagged behind theenormous natality of the Arab population, but was nonethelessunusually large for a modern, emancipated Jewish community.In the United States, too, the Jews, paralleling the trends inthe general population, seem to have had a far greater ratioof both marriages and births than in the last pre-war years.Even European Jewry has begun retrieving its biologicalstrength. The displaced-persons camps, in particular, havewitnessed an astounding acceleration of Jewish populationgrowth. The fact that the 139,000 Jews living in Germanassembly centers on February 1, 1947 included 42,041 womenaged 18 to 44 and, more significantly, 6,600 infants under oneyear of age, revealed a reproductive power unparalleled sincethe heyday of the ghetto community. Our information aboutthe Soviet Union is fragmentary (even the Jewish dataassembled during the census of 1939 have thus far been butpartially analyzed), but there is little room for doubt that theJews, too, have participated to some extent in the largepopulation increase of the country as a whole, which had beengreatly encouraged by the government.

The political and economic difficulties confronting theJewries in Arabic-speaking lands seem thus far not to haveseriously interfered with the natural growth of their popula-tion, which has registered a sharp decline in mortality resultingfrom vastly improved hygienic conditions without any equiva-


lent drop in birthrate. This is particularly true of North Afri-can Jewry living under the French flag. The Jews of thatregion have emerged fairly intact from the oppression of theVichy regime and are now marching in the van of the Sephar-dic and Oriental Jewries. On the other hand, the return ofthousands of Jewish children, hidden away by charitableChristian foster parents, during the Nazi occupation, has beenextremely slow. Fraught with numerous psychological compli-cations and at times quite explosive, this problem had to behandled with much tact and forbearance.

Migrations

The Jewish migratory movements have been resumed dur-ing the past year at an accelerated pace. True, the total ofonly 15,000 to 20,000 Jewish arrivals in the United States(no exact figures for Jewish immigration are available eversince the U. S. immigration authorities discontinued using"Hebrew" as a racial qualification) and of not very manymore in Palestine and the rest of the overseas lands, comparesunfavorably with the large years of Jewish migration in thepast and falls far short of the minimum needs of the Jewishpeople. Nevertheless, an overseas migration of some 50,000Jews constitutes a significant fraction of decimated Conti-nental Jewry living west of the Soviet Union. Many Europeancountries themselves (Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Belgiumand Italy) have admitted many more Jews than have left theirshores. France, in particular, has begun repeating its per-formance after the First World War when it had become oneof the major countries of immigration for Jews and non-Jewsalike. The tremendous influx into the displaced-persons campsof Polish Jews after their resettlement from the Soviet Unionand the Kielce pogrom, and later of Rumanian and HungarianJews had all the earmarks of a large-scale flight sui generis.

It is still too early to assess the full meaning of these migra-tory movements. Nor do we know enough about the innermigrations of Jews within the vast areas of the Soviet Unionor, for that matter, of the United States, where, for instance,Los Angeles has forged ahead to become the fourth or fifthlargest Jewish community in the country. But there are some


factors in the situation that give ground for hope of furtheracceleration in Jewish migrations. These are the greatlyincreased shipping facilities; the expected activities of thenewly formed International Refugee Organization (IRO);the growing realization of such underdeveloped countries asAustralia, South Africa and Brazil that they would greatlybenefit from a multitude of new European settlers (despite theobvious possibilities for an anti-Jewish administrative "selec-tivity"); and the possibly liberalized administration of existingquota laws in the United States such as is envisaged in theStratton Bill and other bills pending before Congress. Mostdecisive, of course, would be the permanent solution of thePalestine problem by the United Nations and the ensuingopening of Palestine's frontiers to new Jewish arrivals.

The outcome of the Palestine issue will determine not onlythe size, but also the quality of Jewish migrations, for thereseem at present few prospects of close mass settlements of Jewsin any other area. Leaving aside Birobidjan, about which ourinformation is both scanty and irreconcilably contradictory,the year under review has only served to emphasize the failureof other Jewish colonization schemes. Despite the DominicanGovernment's reiterated readiness to admit more Jews to theSosua colony, there have been unmistakable signs of the latter'sprogressive disintegration. Australia, which has evinced a newfriendliness toward Jewish immigration (its admission of 781refugees from Shanghai was a particularly fine gesture),persisted in its refusal to set aside an area for Jewish coloni-zation, long advocated by the Freeland League. The League'smore recent proposal to establish a Jewish colony in DutchGuiana is still in its incipient exploratory stages.

Economic Rehabilitation

Economically, too, world Jewry taken as a whole has madesubstantial progress. Even the Palestinian community hasmade signal advances in the upbuilding of its homeland,notwithstanding the prevailing political uncertainties, thedamage to life and property caused by the armed clashes, andthe growing interference with trade and industry by curfewsand martial law. The increase of Palestine's foreign trade in


1946 to a figure five times that of the last pre-war year, thefounding of over thirty new Jewish settlements and theexpansion of the previously existing 300 communities, theacquisition of considerable tracts of land by the JewishNational Fund, the establishment of new factories—have allbeen achieved in the face of staggering difficulties.

In other countries, of course, the Jews were but an integralpart of the larger economic structures. They thus participatedin the general increase in prosperity and full employmentthroughout the Western Hemisphere. In the United Statesalone they could venture to undertake a campaign to raise$170,000,000 for the United Jewish Appeal. This undertaking,unprecedented even in the glorious annals of Jewish communalwelfare, was superimposed upon many national and localcampaigns, for schools of higher learning, local federations,etc., the total of which cannot be fully estimated, and uponinnumerable private donations, gift parcels and the like, sentby individuals, relatives and friends, which are even lesssubject to precise statistical computation. Nor was there anyevidence that these tremendous charitable and educationalexpenditures entailed any serious personal hardships to themajority of contributors.

Unfortunately, the available data are much too fragmentaryand our scholarly approaches to the basic trends in Jewisheconomic life in the largest countries of Jewish settlement arestill, in many respects, much too primitive for anyone to dareassess the present economic status of world Jewry and to com-pare it with its status a decade or two ago. But it may not betoo rash to assert that the Jewries of the Western Hemisphereand the British Empire countries other than the UnitedKingdom, along with the general population, have emergedfrom the crucible of the Second World War in a far strongereconomic position. The distribution of wealth may be muchwider than it was in the 1920's, that expansive decade afterthe First World War. There may be fewer multi-millionairesin the United States, Great Britain, France or South Africa.But there no doubt exists a much larger and economicallystronger middle class, while the masses of workers and employ-ees seem to be enjoying far greater economic security and asomewhat better standard of life.


This summary evaluation, of course, does not hold true ofEuropean Jewry, including its British and Soviet segments.However, even in these areas, there has been a constantgradual improvement during 1946-47. Long-range economicrehabilitation has decidedly been under way in many coun-tries. Holland, for example, is no longer the object of theJoint Distribution Committee's nutritional and medical chari-ties, even though it still requires some long-range assistance.The recuperative powers of the Jewish communities in Italyand France have also been quite astounding. While theeconomic readjustments of the Jews in East-Central Europehave been far more painful and slow, the Jews of Poland,Hungary and Bulgaria, along with the general population,have made at least a partial recovery. Only in Rumania hasthere been an actual deterioration in the economic status ofthe Jews as well as of the country as a whole. Of course, suchrelative economic improvement as we have noted must beconsidered against the background of post-war Europeandevastation and the present critical impasse which theMarshall Plan attempts to solve.

The outline here sketchily drawn is not altogether reas-suring. Advocates of a balanced Jewish economic structurewill easily point out that, with the recent destruction of thelarge masses of Jewish workers and farmers in East-CentralEurope, the world Jewish occupational maldistribution hasbeen greatly aggravated. Even setting aside such ideologicallydebatable judgments, one may readily admit that a largepercentage of gainfully employed Jews occupies exposedeconomic positions which may be shattered by another world-wide economic crisis. But so far, at least, the often predicted"recession" in the United States, with its consequent inter-national repercussions, has failed to materialize. Certainly,for one looking backward rather than forward the year justpast has been one of slow economic progress and rehabilitationfor suffering Jewry as well as for humanity at large.

Communal Consolidation

The Nazi ravages in the East-Central European commu-nities have greatly reduced the area of the traditional Jewish


community. Only in Italy, where the new regime, somewhatsurprisingly, adhered to the policies inaugurated by theLateran Treaties of 1929, have the local community and thecentral Union of Communities been restored to their formerstatus. In Poland, Rumania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia andBulgaria, the existing community laws have so far not beenformally abrogated. But the powerful trends towards separa-tion of state and church, and the strongly secularist bias amonglarge sections of the reconstituted Jewish communities, havegreatly weakened the authority of the traditional religiouscommunity. They promoted instead the formation of avariety of new free associations, cultural, political and eco-nomic (e.g., Jewish producers' cooperatives) which,in constantfree interplay, make up the variegated new pattern of Jewishcommunal life. No one can tell what ultimate forms mayemerge from the present fermentation and how they maybecome permanently institutionalized. Nor can one quitepredict the kind of compromise which may be achievedbetween the influence of the Soviet structure of minorityrights, now strongly followed by Yugoslavia, and the oppositetrend toward national exclusiveness characteristic of the othernations in the Soviet zone. But one may definitely assert thatalready during the year under review, the second afterliberation, the resurrected Jewish communities in EasternEurope, despite their future uncertainties, have revealed anamazing vitality and recuperative power.

The same observation is essentially true also with respect tomost West European communities. Those located in countriesnot overrun by the Nazis (United Kingdom, Irish Free State,Sweden, Switzerland and Portugal) have emerged from thewar without a serious break in their historic continuity, indeedin a numerically and culturally stronger position. (To a lesserextent the same may be said, at least on a comparative basis,about such Axis countries as Italy and Bulgaria.) In Francethe decline of the consistorial system, begun with the separa-tion of state and church over forty years ago, has been hastenedby the war-time persecutions and the more recent powerfulsecularist trends within and without the Jewish community.But here, too, emerged numerous new communal associations,partly formed during the period of underground resistance, as


well as new federated forms of communal activity which haveenabled French Jewry to act in unison on major issues. Thesame trends can also be observed in the far smaller commu-nities of Belgium, Holland and Luxemburg.

Most noteworthy has been the communal revival in France'sNorth-African possessions, which culminated in the recentformation of a Federation of Jewish Communities in Algeria.This show of vitality, moreover, appears to be but a phase ofa general Sephardic renaissance which, begun in the periodbetween the two Wars, has been accelerated in recent years.Numerically and communally the Sephardim have sustainedserious losses only in the Balkans. Concomitant with thegreat tragedy of Ashkenazic Jewry, therefore, the centuries-old trend was sharply reversed: the ratio of the Sephardic andOriental segments to the world Jewish population has nowincreased. The Sephardic renaissance is perhaps best illus-trated by the large number of North-African teachers andsynagogue officials in metropolitan France where they re-placed the traditional immigrants from Eastern Europe. Whilelistening to North-African chants and ritualistic peculiaritiesat many French divine services one could not help musingabout this symbolic healing of an ancient breach in the verycradle of Ashkenazic Jewry. To be sure, the majority ofSephardic and Oriental Jews live in Arab lands under theheavy cloud of the Arab-Jewish controversy over Palestine. Butthe ensuing feeling of insecurity has not yet had any adverseeffects on Jewish communal life west of the Libyan border.

In the New World, too, communal consolidation has madeconstant progress. In the United States, community councilshave grown during the year in number, authority anddiversity of functions. The formation of new regional federa-tions strengthened the intermediate links between the indi-vidual community and the existing central bodies. Thereconversion from war work to peace-time tasks was accom-plished with a minimum of friction in the area of both relief(transition from city-wide war chests to denominational chari-ties) and religious-cultural effort. The growing realizationthat the complexities of modern communal life require moredetailed information and planning found expression in aconsiderable number of national, regional and local surveys.


The United Jewish Appeal has increasingly become a majorexpression of the overall communal will. Its progressive trans-formation from a fund-raising effort for three organizationsonly into a comprehensive representation of the community-at-large was highlighted during the year by the election ofgeneral communal representatives to its executive and admin-istrative committees and the inclusion of several more agencies,at least in its New York campaign. The American JewishConference is planning to become a permanent organization.Good progress was also achieved in Canada, where theCanadian Jewish Congress has enlarged its sphere of authority;in Argentina, where the main two relief agencies were unitedin a single organization; and in South Africa where the JewishBoard of Deputies gave the impetus to the formation of a newUnion of Orthodox synagogues.

On the international scene, the major Jewish organizationseffectively collaborated in the negotiations concerning thepeace treaties and the solution of the Palestine problem.Several independently collaborating groups in various landshave been accredited by the United Nations as spokesmen forthe Jewish people. The most important among them alsocollaborated in the establishment of the Jewish RestitutionCommission and the Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc.,which are about to begin operations in Europe, designed torecapture at least a part of the economic property and culturaltreasures of German Jewry. In the area of relief and recon-struction, too, the Joint Distribution Committee entered intoa working agreement with similar bodies in Canada and SouthAfrica for the pooling of their resources and personnel, withthe Jewish Agency and the ORT, concerning the retrainingof displaced persons, and with other relief organizations inregard to their joint efforts. Such collaboration became themore significant as the progressive liquidation of UNRRAand the far more limited scope of operations of its successorthe IRO, necessitated ever greater reliance on the resources ofthese voluntary organizations.

Religious and Cultural Creativity

Jewish cultural and religious efforts have also shown, forthe most part, increasing vitality during the past year. Among


American Jews, in particular, the consciousness of havingbecome heir to the great Jewish cultural centers of Polandand Germany has permeated ever wider circles of communalleadership as well as the rank and file. There have been manymanifestations of growing concern with Jewish cultural under-takings and the overall community's responsibility for pro-moting them. In Palestine, too, every form of Jewish scientific,artistic, literary and educational endeavor received many newstimuli.

Preparations were made during a large part of the year fortwo international conferences in Jerusalem devoted to Jewishlearning and Jewish education. A world conference forYiddish culture was likewise convoked and another is beingplanned. A conference held in Paris in September 1946 forthe spiritual reconstruction of European Jewry blueprinted anew international organization, the United Jewish Educationand Cultural Organization (UJECO) which has since beencalled into being. The Hebrew University and other Jewishinstitutions of higher learning have expanded their activities.In the United States a new Jewish university was in itspreparatory stage. Yeshiva University, the Jewish TheologicalSeminary, the Hebrew Union College, the Jewish Institute ofReligion, Dropsie College, and the various teacher-traininginstitutions have all embarked upon programs of expansion.The Seminary opened a new museum, which promises tobecome a major center of Jewish art. A newly formed JewishMusic Council is expected to help popularize Jewish musicin the way the Jewish Book Council has been popularizingJewish letters in recent years. Protracted negotiations betweenseveral national organizations laid the ground for a newTraining Bureau for Jewish Communal Service, which maylead to a revival, on a higher plane, of the Graduate Schoolfor Jewish Social Work, closed in 1940. The rabbinical col-leges in Paris and Rome have been re-established, while thatin Budapest has resumed its significant position in the edu-cational structure of the Jewish people. In view of the de-struction of German and Austrian centers of Jewish learning,Swiss Jewry inaugurated in the German-speaking city ofBasle regular courses of instruction for teachers to serve theremaining German-speaking communities in Central Europe.


The newly projected rabbinical seminary in Algiers maybecome before long an important focus of the Sephardicrenaissance.

Significant educational undertakings, based upon scholarlysurveys and new pedagogic approaches, have also beeninaugurated in the primary and secondary school systems,religious as well as lay, in America and elsewhere. There hasbeen a growing emphasis upon the week-day as against theSunday School, increasing enrolment in All-Day schools anda general effort to extend the hours of instruction. Under theaegis of the National Jewish Welfare Board, the Jewish centermovement was gradually spreading from the North Americancontinent to other lands. A world federation of Jewish centerswas created with member institutions scattered over manycommunities in Europe, Latin America and Australia. Plansfor the establishment of a large Y. M. H. A. in Jerusalem awaitearly implementation. There were also other manifestationsof cultural vigor in the various Jewish youth movementssponsored by religious, political and social organizations. TheHashomer Hatzair and the Habonim groups among the Zionists,the various Jewish scout movements and the youth groupsattached to the larger Jewish organizations have often adoptedconstructive cultural and educational programs permeatedwith a truly pioneering spirit. A world conference of Jewishstudent groups has given expression to the widespread desire ofacademic youth to contribute its share to the cultural recon-struction of the Jewish people.

In the religious sphere there was a notable growth incongregational membership in the United States. This in-crease may have been due in part to economic prosperitywhich enabled members to pay dues, the progressive integra-tion of immigrant groups in the American community andmore efficient membership recording, but it also testified tothe growing vigor of the national and local religious bodies.Yeshivah and parochial education likewise made significantadvances. The recent arrival of nearly a thousand rabbinicalstudents from Shanghai and Europe is also likely to strengthenthe religious forces in American Jewish life. Such inter-territorial Jewish organizations as the Agudah, Mizrachi, andVaad ha-Hatzalah have also reported considerable progress.


All these manifestations of renewed religious vigor areevidently but part and parcel of the general religious revivalin the Western world, which has the earmarks of greaterpermanence than the transitory religious upsurge after theFirst World War. This religious revival, to be sure, is notcompletely devoid of dangers to the Jewish people. Accordingto the testimony of informed observers, the recent reconcili-ation of the Soviet regime with the Greek-Orthodox Churchhas helped the return of some of the traditional mainspringsof religious prejudice. The conflict between the Polish Churchand the new regime, the continual emphasis upon Catholicreligious instruction in Italy's public schools and the problemscreated by the "released time" plan in American publiceducation are but a few of the numerous complications intro-duced into Jewish life by the newer religious trends in theChristian world. These complications were largely offset,however, by the growing awareness of the Christian religiousbodies of the great menace of anti-Semitism to their ownreligious mission and by the new stimuli given to the construc-tive forces of religious Judaism.

The Jewish press, whether published in Hebrew, Yiddish,Ladino or any of the spoken languages in the respectivecountries, continued to increase in number and circulation.Even in devastated Europe there has been a significant revivalof Jewish journalism, which developed in part from theclandestine sheets published by the Jewish underground duringthe war. One need not mention here specific titles of scholarlyand literary journals and magazines or of the more significantscholarly or literary books published during the year. Sufficeit to say that this literary output compares favorably in bothquantity and quality with similar productions before the war.

Of course, the creative vitality of Polish Jewry and thescholarly discipline and diversification of interests of GermanJewry have not yet been replaced in this post-war world. Thegradual revitalization of the old centers, however, and theawakening and expansion of the creative abilities of the newercenters are decidedly an auspicious augury for the future. Forthe first time in many years, therefore, the mood of utterdespondency which permeated large sections of world Jewry isbeginning to give way to a new feeling of hopeful expectation.

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Review of the Tear - ajcarchives.org · curtailing freedom of expression, also were widely debated. Realizing the limited efficacy of legislation alone, educators, acting in unison