Compromise: Weizmann’s “Speech to the 20th Zionist Congress”
In 1937, a fierce dispute emerged amongst Jews across the globe: should the Zionist movement accept the recommendations of the Peel Commission to partition the Land of Israel into two states? Many Zionists saw this proposal not only as a betrayal of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which they believed promised a Jewish state between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, but also as a betrayal of our Biblical homeland. A broad alliance of Zionist groups lobbied against the plan. Yet two Zionist leaders, David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, urged Zionists to accept the plan, despite all of their reservations. In this session, we’ll study Weizmann’s speech at the 20th Zionist Congress and explore why this was such a fateful moment in Zionist history.
Rabbi Shlomo Brody
Rabbi Dr. Shlomo Brody is the executive director of Ematai and the Jewish Law Live columnist for the Jerusalem Post. He previously served as the founding director of the Tikvah Overseas Student Institute and co-dean of Tikvah Online Academy, a senior instructor at Yeshivat Hakotel, and as a junior research fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. Rabbi Brody’s career has focused on making Jewish texts accessible to broader audiences while applying them to contemporary social and ethical dilemmas. His writings have been cited in Israeli Supreme Court decisions and have appeared in Mosaic, First Things, Tradition, The Federalist, Tablet, Tzohar, The Forward, Hakirah, Jewish Review of Books, and other popular publications. His first book, A Guide to the Complex: Contemporary Halakhic Debates (Maggid), received a National Jewish Book Award. His next book, Judaism Confronts War: Jewish Military Ethics for the 21st Century, is scheduled to be published in both Hebrew and English in early 2024. A summa cum laude graduate of Harvard College, he received rabbinic ordination from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate, an MA in Jewish philosophy at the Hebrew University, and his PhD from Bar Ilan University Law School, where he continues to serve as a post-doctoral fellow. Rabbi Brody has been an invited scholar-in-residence at over 40 distinguished congregations and campuses in the United States, Canada, England, and Israel.
Meet the Instructor
Courses in our special learning campaign are open to anyone in the community who registers at no cost. The Q&A will be reserved for current high-school students.
