Summary
Leading American Zionist rabbi and head of the American Jewish Congress, who in Lenni Brenner’s account first held back the Jewish Anti-Nazi Boycott, then became the Ha’avara (Transfer Agreement) agreement’s most prominent Zionist critic, and finally capitulated at the 1935 Lucerne Congress and endorsed it (Zionism in the Age of the Dictators: A Reappraisal, PDF p.45, p.52, p.55).
Details
- In Chapter 1, Nahum Goldmann recalled Wise’s fierce arguments with Chaim Weizmann: Wise held that the fight for Jewish rights and the building of Palestine were “part and parcel of the same problem”, against Weizmann’s refusal to spare time from Zionist work for Diaspora rights (Zionism in the Age of the Dictators: A Reappraisal, PDF p.14).
- In 1933 those determined to impose a boycott turned to Wise and the American Jewish Congress to lead it; he at first opposed demonstrations and a boycott, filled Madison Square Garden for the 27 March rally, but wrote to a friend, “You cannot imagine what I am doing to resist the masses. They want tremendous street scenes”, and held out against a boycott while in Europe in August 1933, when more militant AJC elements called one in his absence (PDF p.45).
- When the Ha’avara (Transfer Agreement) pact was exposed at Prague, Wise presented the leadership with an ultimatum: explain “how to prevent German… propagandists from utilising the agreement” (PDF p.50).
- In September 1933 he called Ha’avara the new golden calf, “the Golden Orange”, and said Jews everywhere held in abhorrence any Jew who made commercial arrangements with the Nazi government for any reason whatever; at a World Jewish Conference at Geneva in 1934 he attacked the Labourites’ doctrine that Palestine has primacy, holding that “its primacy ceases when it comes into conflict with a higher moral law” (PDF p.52).
- At Lucerne in 1935 the presidium struck his name from the speakers’ list for fear he would denounce Hitler; he threatened to walk out, was allowed to speak, said he was opposed to Hitler, and sat down; he and Abba Hillel Silver then capitulated to Weizmann and endorsed the Ha’avara, and after Lucerne no serious differences remained (PDF p.55).
Related pages
Zionism in the Age of the Dictators: A Reappraisal, Ha’avara (Transfer Agreement), Jewish Anti-Nazi Boycott, Chaim Weizmann, World Zionist Organization