The Religious Zionism Debate VI

I inadvertently omitted two important and great scholars from my previous post on this subject.

The following is from the definitive biography of R. Eliezer Silver--R. Aaron Rakeffet-Rothkoff, The Silver Era, pp. 262, 274, 302:

Another time [R. Eliezer] Silver was in a quandary within himself and with his associates [was] regarding a Bonds for Israel dinner in his city. Every year Silver publicly supported this event and attended the dinner. In 1964 the guest of honor was to be Nelson Glueck, the president of the Hebrew Union College. Many Orthodox Jews felt that Silver should not be present at an affair honoring such a prominent Reform Jewish personality. Nevertheless, Silver did attend, since his concern for the cause and feeling of communal responsibilities won out. At the affair, when questioned about his presence, Silver declared, "How could I stay away from a dinner aiding the State of Israel?..."

Silver also exerted his influence in the determination of Agudat Israel and Agudat Harabanim policy towards the formation of the Jewish State. Silver himself had always been in favor of such a state, despite his Agudat Israel ties. Following the Balfour Declaration in 1917, Silver marched in a New York Zionist parade in its support. When Chief Rabbi Abraham Kook visited the United States in 1924, the Agudat Harabanim invited him to adress its convention...

Silver's letter [in opposition to Satmar anti-Zionist activities] did not abate the course of action of the Satmar element. It did, however, strengthen the more moderate forces in American Orthodoxy. His viewpoint was widely cited in Mizrachi circles. Silver later participated in a Mizrachi conference. Afterwards, at an Agudah conclave, there were those who desired to disbar Silver. It was reported that Rabbi Kotler opposed this request...

R. Pinchas Teitz's daughter, Dr. Rivkah Blau, wrote the following in her biography of her great father, Learn Torah, Love Torah, Live Torah, pp. 150-153:

After the Shoah the significance of whether Israel would win recognition as the Jewish state was so strong that R. Teitz left a radio on in his study over Shabbat, November 28/29, 1947, in order to hear the vote in the United Nations...

When it became clear that there would be a Jewish state of Israel again, R. Teitz thought it was time for a completely new approach.

He called his 1948 essay "A Key [or, An Opening] To Redemption" and applied halakhic analysis, in the tradition of the Rogatchover [with whom he was very close - GS], to the new situation. He began with a question: do the remarkable events indicate the Redemption, the beginning of the Redemption or a chance, with the "key" or "opening" now available to usher in a period of redemption? His response, in my translation and paraphrase, was:

First, how did our generation merit these events? The end of the exile has come because of the halakhic rule that if one deserves two punishments, one gets the harsher punishment immediately and does not ahve to udnergo the lesser punishment. When we were sent into exile and given into the hands of Job's Satan, we would endure all kinds of offliction, but, like Job, we were supposed to survive. Between 1935 and 1945, we learned that there is no place on this globe, however cultured and democratic, to have an exile. If the world could cold-bloodedly stand by while six millioni were murdered, there is no safe place for Jews. The punishment of death incorporates all other punishments; the Shoah was the absolute, the maximum, and covers the end of exile as well. In ten years, we suffered a concentrated exile equal to that of all the preceding centuries. Now it is time to go to a city of refuge...

R. Teitz went further in defining how that erea would register in history in an essay for the New Year 5709 [October 1948] on "The State of Israel and the Torah-Jew." He asked, "Will we be a generation of mourners for the great destruction" or "a generation of redemption, of builders who establish the foundation for the Jewish future?"...

He thought that the founding of the state of Israel eliminated most of the differences between Agudath Israel and Mizrachi, which had centered on the question of whether there should be a Jewish state at all. Once this question had been answered with a fact, the parties should cooperate. R. Teitz met regularly in 1948-49 with a group trying to create a united religious front in Israel, but the two groups elected to remain separate.