MEMORIAL
In support of the Vaad Ha'ir Ashkenazl of Jerusalem, submitted by the Agudath Israel to the President and Members of the Permanent Mandates Commission.
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
