Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2020
In January 1940, Agudat Yisrael in Palestine agreed to participate in the Yishuv’s recently announced emergency tax, which the Zionist National Council had imposed on all Jews under its auspices in response to the severe hardships of World War II and the geopolitical situation in the Middle East.1 Agudah’s support for the emergency measure was an important step toward rapprochement with the Zionist factions, and, as such, was bound to spark controversy in Orthodox circles.2 Some of these tensions were articulated in an article published on January 11 by the Agudah organ Kol Yisrael that grappled with the agreement and its implications. Overall, the newspaper welcomed the deal. Agudists, the author “Samuel S.” argued, had wrangled with Zionist entities for quite a while, but by now, Orthodox frameworks were strong enough and non-Zionist communities were sufficiently solidified to allow for this kind of cooperation. Yet even while praising the agreement, he felt compelled to clarify its qualitative difference to cooperation with religious Zionists. “Many ask,” he noted, “why it is easier for Agudah to cooperate with the secularists and their institutions than with the leaders of Mizrahi. These naive inquirers do not appreciate the fine but prominent distinction that exists between the two modes of cooperation. They do not understand that it is easy to speak openly with an adversary whose tendencies and aims one clearly knows. … It is very hard, on the other hand, to meet someone who seems like a friend, but is, in fact, a treacherous opponent and causes one to fail at every step.”3
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.