Memorandum to the League of Nations, 11 October 1925

Vienna, October 11th, 1925

The Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations having received a petition from the Vaad Ha'ir Ashkenazi of Jerusalem, in which reference is made to the counter draft of a Statue for the Palestine Jews submitted to the Mandates Commission some additional information on the object of this petition.

The Agudath Israel represents, as you know, the great majority of strictly traditionalist Jews throughout the world.

The need for thus grouping all Jews firmly attached to their religious traditions in a universal organisation arose when -- by the creation of the Zionist Organisation -- it became clear that there was a tendency to include all Jews in a great association of an exclusively political character. This tendency has constantly developed.

The great spiritual leaders of Judaism realised that such a tendency constituted a great danger for the Jewish religion; it was on their initiative that the Agudath Israel was founded in 1912. Its definite constitution was, however, impeded by the war, and only in 1923, when the first Kenessic Guedolah (Grand Assembly) met, was it possible to draw up the final Statute.

The Agudath Israel regards the integral observance of the Jewish Law as the first duty of universal Judaism, and is therefore opposed to the Zionist programme, which is based solely on a nationalist conception of the Jewish community, religion being regarded as a private and individual concern.

Naturally, the contract between these two points of view has become particularly marked in the Holy Land. It is this division of opinion which explains the deep-rooted causes of the dispute now calling for your attention.

The Vaad Ha'ir Ashkenazi (Council of the Israelites of the Western Rite) represents a community of 1,600 families which punctiliously recognises the authority of the Jewish law; its administration is therefore only entrusted to persons who both in private and public life have remained faithful to this principle.

The community is therefore adversely affected, as regards its freedom of conscience and worship, by the fact that it has been constrained to join the Vaad Leumi (National Council), a Council which, as its political and religious powers and duties are enextricably interwoven, might quite well subordinate religious principles to the influence and weight of purely political factors.

The complaint of the Vaad Ha'ir Ashkenazi is based on two facts:

(a) The fact that it has been deprived of its rights and independence as a result of a measure adopted by the Palestine Administration, and still in force.

As this measure is purely administrative, the fate of the present petition, which is directed against it, cannot be made to depend on the question of the draft law referred to below under (b).

It should also be observed that, before the constitution of the Vaad Laumi, or its local representation, the Vaad Ha'ir Ashkenazi was in uncontested possession of the rights of which it was deprived later.

(b) The draft law published by the Palestine Government, which renders impossible the creation of a religious community independent of that represented by the Vaad Leumi.

Although, according to trustworthy information, this draft law has been abandoned, justifiable fears are entertained lest the new draft law which is now being prepared may adhere to the principle of the unity of the Jewish religious community and may thus, contrary to the most elementary rights of the freedom of conscience and worship, abolish the right to found independent religious communities. It is clear that a clause under which any individual may leave the general organisation of the Palestine Jews cannot in any way be compensation for the freedom, which every religious community should be able to claim, to exist as an independent communiety. To meet the needs of his religious life, the individual cannot dispense with the existence of a community of co-religionists to which he can belong.

If such a standpoint were admitted, a considerable portion of the Jews in Palestine would be deprived of the freedom which they enjoy elsewhere without controversy.

The Agudath Israel must energetically protest against any suggestion of entrusting to an organisation such as the Vaad Leumi the power of organising and adminstering purely religious communities such as the Vaad Ha'ir Ashkenazi. We are convinced that, so long as the obligation to obey the Jewish Law has not been universally recognised by the Jews, infringement of freedom of conscience can only be avoided by the formal recognition of the absolute rights of religious communities -- we mean, of course, purely religious communities without any political aims or tendencies -- freely to constitute themselves as separate bodies.

Confident in your high sense of justice, we have the honour, Gentlemen, to be:

The the Political Commission:
[signed] E. Weill,
Grand Rabbi of Colmer and the Upper Rhine,
Member of the Political Commission

For the Grand Rabbinical Council:
[signed] J. Furst,
Grand Rabbi in Vienna,
Member of the Grand Rabbinical Council

For the Central Committee:
[signed] Dr. T. Lewenstein,
Grand Rabbi at Zurich
Member of the Central Committee

For the Governing Committee:
[signed] Dr. P. Kohn,
Chairman