Rabbi ‘Warns’ U.S. Jews About Fund

ANTI-ZIONIST SPEAKS

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“Rabbi Elmer Berger, a leading anti-Zionist spokesman executive vice president of the American Council For Judaism, yesterday urged givers to the United Jewish Appeal to understand what they are involved in when they contribute to it.

‘No U.S. citizen should be asked or pressured into giving money to a fund which is partially in the interest of a foreign state,’ he said, at a press conference in Hotel Sheraton-Cleveland.

He urged newspaper, television and radio representatives to help American Jews understand what is involved in their support of Zionism, which he described as ‘an extremely sophisticated movement.’ RABBI BERGER asserted that efforts to get a thorough accounting of the final allocation of all money raised by the United Jewish Appeal have not been successful.

‘We have to deal with this problem rationally and responsibly,’ he explained. ‘We understand the emotional support for Israel and Zionism, especially since Hitler.’ Rabbi Berger said he was not sure that in 50 years any of the small states in the Middle East, including Israel, would be in existence. HE SAID THAT the American Council For Judaism has its own philanthropic fund.

He said his organization’s membership was not growing rapidly but asserted its influence was expanding. The council is a national organization of anti-Zionist Americans of Jewish faith.”

Context added by this archive

Jewish anti-Zionism in a mainstream metropolitan daily in 1963, with a press conference, a local chapter and forty people at a reception in Shaker Heights.

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"Rabbi ‘Warns’ U.S. Jews About Fund," The Plain Dealer, 23 October 1963, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1963-001. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1963-001