| Letters to the Editor Regarding "American Jewish Committee celebrates its 100th anniversary in Berlin," April 10. I am grateful for the extensive coverage you provided of the American Jewish Committee's diplomatic work against the backdrop of our centennial anniversary. There is, however, one key point that needs clarification. The article refers to the non-Zionist character of the AJC in the years preceding Israel's establishment and suggests that while the AJC endorsed Israel's establishment, it was not until 1967 that the support was "solidified." Not quite. To cite just a few historical examples: In November, 1945, AJC leaders urged U.S. secretary of state James Byrnes to press the British government to admit 100,000 European Jews into Palestine. This followed years of repeated AJC representations to the American and British governments for "removal of the barriers to Jewish immigration (to Palestine) erected by the British White Paper of 1939," which, as the AJC insisted, were "contrary to both the Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate, subscribed to by the United States and Great Britain, as well as to the dictates of humanity." When the U.S. government appeared to be backing away from support for the partition plan in early 1948, AJC leaders vigorously pressed the Truman administration to stand by its previously announced position in favor and to reaffirm publicly its stance. This followed "almost daily communication with the high officials of our government in charge of policy formulation," said Jacob Blaustein, a former top AJC leader, "from the time that the Palestine question was first thrown into the General Assembly until the historic vote was taken on November 29, 1947." Later, there was a flurry of activity in the summer of 1948 to urge the American government to press the British to end the detention of Jews on Cyprus and permit them to resettle in Israel. In 1954, as Abba Eban recounted, "The American aid program to Israel was stopped on political grounds. [Jacob] Blaustein had a very decisive effect on getting it resumed almost as soon as it had been stopped by his contacts with secretary of state John Foster Dulles ..." And to jump ahead, the AJC was the first American Jewish organization, in 1962, to open a full-time office in Israel. Summing up the AJC's role, Eban said, "No one will ever forget how you stood in vigilant brotherhood at the cradle of our emergent statehood; and how you helped lay the foundations of our international status and of our crucial friendship with the government and people of the American Republic." In other words, AJC's strong support for Israel was "solidified" long before 1967. David A. Harris |
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