MAGNES, Judah. Reform rabbi and anti-racist Zionist

Judah Magnes (1877-1948) was an outstanding Reform rabbi in both the US and Palestine. The first chancellor of the Hebrew University and later president (1935-1948), he argued for non-racism and a bi-national state in Palestine (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_Leon_Magnes ).

Judah Magnes re Peel Commission and Partition, 1937 (New York Times, 18 July, 1937): “With the permission of the Arabs we will be able to receive hundreds of thousands of persecuted Jews in Arab lands … Without the permission of the Arabs even the four hundred thousand [Jews] that now are in Palestine will remain in danger, in spite of the temporary protection of British bayonets. With partition a new Balkan is made.” [1].

Judah Magnes on Zionism: "If we cannot find ways of peace and understanding, if the only way of establishing the Jewish National Home is upon the bayonets of some Empire, our whole enterprise is not worthwhile, and it is better that the Eternal People that has outlived many a mighty empire should possess its soul in patience... It is one of the great civilizing tasks before the Jewish people to enter the promised land, not in the Joshua way, but bringing peace and culture, hard work and sacrifice and love, and a determination to do nothing that cannot be justified before the conscience of the world." [1].

Judah Magnes (in resigning leadership of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee over the issue of their refusal to aid Palestinian refugees), 1948: "How can I continue to be officially associated with an aid organization which apparently so easily can ignore such a huge and acute refugee problem?" [1].

[1]. Judah Magnes, quoted in Wikpedia, “ Judah Leon Magnes”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_Leon_Magnes .