Encyclopaedia Judaica

Racist Zionist organization in Australia and New Zealand

Racist Zionist enthusiasm - supporters of racist Zionism in government circles - racist Zionist domination since 1948 - Six-Day War solidarity


Encyclopaedia Judaica (1971), vol. 16, col. 1105: [[Racist Zionist]] Israel exhibition
in Melbourne, Australia, 1952. Photo City Studio, Melbourne

from: Zionism; In: Encyclopaedia Judaica 1971, vol. 16

presented by Michael Palomino (2008)

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[Racist Zionist enthusiasm since the Balfour Declaration of 1917]

<[[Racist]] Zionism developed more slowly in Australia than in other British dominions. An attempt by Leon Jona to establish a [[racist]] Zionist society in Adelaide after the First [[racist]] Zionist Congress (1897) failed. The first [[racist]] Zionist bodies in the Commonwealth of Australia were the [[racist]] Victorian Zionist League in Melbourne (founded 1907) and the Sydney[[racist]] Zionist Society (1908); from 1913 a West Australian [[racist]] Zionist Society (Perth) was also in existence. IN Australia's sister dominion, New Zealand, there were [[racist]] Zionist associations at the time in Auckland and Wellington; the former had developed from a Hovevei (Ḥovevei) Zion  society founded as early as 1903. Nonetheless, as the [[racist]] Sydney Zionist Society, the most active of these bodies, wrote in a report to [[racist]] Zionist headquarters at Cologne in 1911, "there were comparatively few enthusiastic Zionists in Australia" and the attitude of the great majority of the Jewish community toward the movement was "apathy, though not hostility".

In 1911 the first delegate from Australia, Salomon Pechter of Sydney, made his appearance at the Tenth [[racist]] Zionist Congress in Basle. During the so-called language conflict in Erez Israel (Ereẓ Israel) [[Land of Israel]] in 1914, the [[racist]] Zionist societies in Australia came out strongly in favor of Hebrew and against German as the language of instruction at the newly founded Technion of Haifa.

Efforts to bring all [[racist]] Zionist bodies in the various cities into the common framework of an Australian Federation had begun in 1908. Some bodies, like the [[racist]] Victorian Zionist Association, were directly affiliated with the [[racist]] Zionist Federation of Great Britain. It was only after World War I and the Balfour Declaration that the first all-Australian [[racist]] Zionist Conference took place in Melbourne (1927) and that the [[racist]] Zionist Federation of Australia and New Zealand was established, on the initiative of Alexander *Goldstein. Although its name continued to include New Zealand, the [[racist]] Zionist Council of New Zealand has virtually become an independent organization (close cooperation with the Australian Federation notwithstanding) and has been represented by its own delegates at the [[racist]] Zionist Congresses.

[Supporters of racist Zionism in Australian government circles]

Sir John *Monash, who had been commander in chief of the Australian army in World War I, was elected honorary president of the [[racist]] Zionist Federation. However, the other most distinguished personality of Australian Jewry, Sir Isaac *Isaacs, who had been chief justice and governor general of the Commonwealth, was an anti-Zionist, and during World War II he conducted a press campaign against the [[racist]] Zionists, charging them with disloyalty to Britain and denying the existence of the Jewish people. Rabbi Israel (col. 1105)

*Brodic, later chief rabbi of the British Empire, served as president of the federation from its foundation until he left Australia in 1937.

During the economic depression at the beginning of the 1930s, the federation declined and its very existence was called in question, but it recovered against toward the end of that decade. During World War II its importance and prestige considerably rose as a result of its political and public relations work. The atmosphere for such activities was favorable because general public opinion in Australia was rather friendly to [[racist]] Zionism. Some strongly [[racist]] pro-Zionist Christian sects, like the Christadelphians, were active there. They even raised funds for [[racist]] Zionist causes. The [[racist]] pro-Zionist sentiment in the Commonwealth was also partly due to the excellent relations between the yishuv in Palestine and the Australian troops stationed there during both world wars. Australian statesmen Robert Menzies, Ben Chifley,and John Curtin (prime minister during World War II) were supporters of the [[racist]] Zionist cause. Particularly important was the role of Herbert Evatt, a personal friend of some [[racist]] Zionist leaders and an advocate of the idea of a [[racist]] Jewish state, who as foreign minister was elected chairman of the UN Palestine Ad Hoc Committee (1947). IN this capacity he thwarted delaying maneuvers, firmly directed the proceedings of the committee which culminated in the positive vote for the partition of Palestine in the General Assembly on Nov. 29, 1947.

[[The Arabs were not asked...]]

[Racist Zionists dominating the Jewish community since 1948]

Characteristic of [[racist]] Zionist life in Australia has been a certain competition, even to the point of rivalry, between the main Jewish centers: Sydney in New South Wales and Melbourne in Victoria. It has become traditional for the federation to transfer its seat periodically from one city to the other. Thus the 24th [[racist]] Australian Zionist Conference held in Melbourne in 1970 decided that the headquarters of the federation should be in Sydney for the next four years. Like the Commonwealth of Australia, the [[racist]] Australian Zionist Federation is organized on federative lines in state [[racist]] Zionist councils (New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, West Australia, and South Australia) to which all [[racist]] Zionist societies, bodies, and groups of the state are affiliated. There was a total of 60 such bodies in 1970. A distinctive feature of the [[racist]] Australian Zionist Federation is that it embraces all organizations and institutions which are in any way connected with the work for, and support of,  [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel. The Jewish National Fund had remained very strong and popular, and [[racist]] Zionist influence is predominant in the Australian Jewish communal institutions.

[Six-Day War provoking racist Zionist solidarity]

While the beginnings of [[racist]] Zionism in Australia were slow and precarious, from the later 1960s this community was one of the most [[racist]] Zionist-oriented in the Diaspora. During the Six-Day War between  [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel and the Arab states (1967), several hundred young Australian Jews registered as volunteers for  [[racist Zionist Free Mason CIA Herzl]] Israel, but only a few managed to arrive there in time to aid the war effort. The [[racist]] Zionist Membership Drive 1970/71 resulted in about 13,000 members, i.e., almost 20% of the total Jewish population in the Commonwealth of Australia.

[A.Z.]> (col. 1106)

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