To the Editor:
Oscar Handlin’s anniversary contribution to your January 1957 issue dealing with the history of the American Jewish Committee contains a regrettable misstatement of the position of the American Council for Judaism. He refers, at one point, to “the wholesale condemnation of Israel and of Zionism that began to emanate from the American Council for Judaism.”
The Council has most scrupulously sought, in all its public statements, to record its opposition to Zionism (the worldwide political movement) while at the same time avoiding any judgment as to the conduct of Israel (a sovereign, foreign state). It is our view that Zionism, with its program aimed at Jews, regardless of their citizenship, imposes upon Jews the responsibility of accepting or rejecting that program—and the Council chooses to reject it. Approval or condemnation of Israel, however, is no responsibility of Jews, as Jews, we think, but rather a function of the governments of other sovereign nations, including the United States.
I shall be grateful if you will correct the record in this regard.
Maxwell Steinhardt
Treasurer
The American Council for Judaism
New York, New York
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Mr. Handlin writes:
I regret that Mr. Steinhardt considers my judgment of the Council’s position a misstatement. I can assure him that it is based upon a careful—and often sympathetic—reading of the Council’s publications.
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