Jewish Community Relations Council, Boston, Massachusetts

              July-August, 1970
11
A More Perfect Zionist Union
by  Daniel  Mann
The American Zionist Federation is "an
idea whose time has come." After decades
of debate and dissension on the question of reorganization and unification, it was only a few
years ago that the constituent organizations of
the American Zionist movement actually began
moving toward the ide3 of federation. This
process took on new momentum and renewed
urgency under the impact of the Six-Day War,
and culminated in Philadelphia only two months
ago, at the First National Convention of the
Federation, which was attended by five hundred
delegates coming from communities throughout
the country and representing some twenty-five
national Zionist organizations, youth and student movements, and related agencies,
The theme of the Convention—"In Order to
Form a More Perfect Union"—was taken from
the preamble of the American Constitution,
written in Philadelphia almost two hundred years
ago. To quote the constitution of the Federation
itself, the new framework will "speak and act
for the unified Zionist movement in the United
States." It is intended both to consolidate the
efforts of the existing Zionist constituency in the
fields of public and communal affairs, Jewish
education, youth and campus activities, and ali-
yah, and to invite the affiliation and participation
of like-minded individuals and organizations in
the community at large. Special emphasis is now
being placed on the organization of local Zionist
Federations throughout the United States, since
the federation process in its essence means the
involvement of Jews on the grass-roots level in
the program of the organized Zionist movement.
Federation is not a new concept in American
Zionist life. Over a half-century ago there was
a "Federation of American Zionists," the precursor of today's Zionist Organization of America. More recently, beginning in the 1940's, the
Poalc Zion leader, Baruch Zuckerman, and indeed thc entire Labor Zionist movement advocated the idea of a federated framework. During
the last two decades, some of thc General Zionist
organizations contribued in their way by stressing the need for "de-politicizing" the inner
workings of the movement and attracting new
elements on a non-partisan basis. Individual
leaders of  World  Zionism,  most  notably  Dr.
Daniel Mann served ai co-ordinator of the various committees
and boards which prepared for the establishment of the American Zionist Federation during the past two years. However,
the interpretations and opinions in this article are his own.
Nahum Goldmann and the late Moshe Sharett,
also pressed for greater American Zionist unity
in the course of their contacts with leaders in
this country. Yet—for reasons of inertia, indifference, or internal politics—little progress was
made, during most of the period that followed
the climatic events of the 1940's, to move the
movement toward any meaningful reform of its
structure. Instead, the burden was shifted to the
World Zionist scene, where commissions on reorganization were succeeded by new commissions, whose reports to Zionist congresses were
followed by the appointment of still more
commissions.
At the 26th Zionist Congress, which met in
Jerusalem in early 1965, there was yet another
such referral—a resolution authorizing the appointment of a Commission on Reorganization
of the World Zionist Organization which was to
report to the next congress a few years later. It
is no reflection on its predecessors that this Commission succeeded in laying the basis for the
reform which has now come about. It is rather
that by 1965, when this particular Commission
began its work, there was a recognition on the
part of most Zionist leaders that "something had
to be done about American Zionism." As one
leading personality subsequently explained, "We
just had to come to grips with the fact that we
were playing less and less of a role in Jewish life
in America, even in pro-Israel activities. The individual oragnizations were all doing excellent
work but the total image of Zionism in America
was weak."
Besides this readiness for an "agonizing reappraisal," the structuring of thc Commission
on Reorganization itself enhanced its capacity
for initiating a restructuring of organized Zionism. In place of a single body which would propose a uniform plan for the whole world, each
continent—in some cases, even each country—
had its own committee. Moreover, each such
committee was drawn from both the experienced
leadership of the constituent organizations and
from knowledgeable elements in thc community
at large, particularly academic and rabbinical
circles. The American Committee was headed by
Dr. Judah Shapiro, a leading advocate of renewed
Zionist concern for all facets of Jewish life and
fuller democracy in both the Zionist movement
and the Jewish community.
By the time the various committees and then
the full Commission on Reorganization had com-