Judah Leon Magnes
Encyclopedia
Judah Leon Magnes was a prominent Reform
rabbi
in both the United States and Palestine. He is best remembered as a leader pacifist
movement of the World War I
period and as one of the most widely recognized voices of 20th Century American Reform Judaism
.
to David and Sophie (Abrahamson).
As a young boy, Magnes's family moved to Oakland, California
, where he attended Sabbath school at First Hebrew Congregation
, and was taught by Ray Frank
, the first Jewish woman to preach formally from a pulpit in the United States.
Magnes's views of the Jewish people was strongly influenced by First Hebrew's Rabbi Levy, and it was at First Hebrew's building on 13th and Clay that Magnes first began preaching. His bar mitzvah speech of 1890 was quoted at length in The Oakland Tribune
.
Magnes gained a degree of notoriety while studying at the University of Cincinnati in a campaign against censorship of the "Class annual" of 1898 by the university faculty.
On Oct. 19, 1908, Magnes married Beatrice Lowenstein of New York, who happened to be Louis Marshall's sister-in-law.
In America, he spend most of his professional life in New York, where he helped found the American Jewish Committee
in 1906. Magnes was also one of the most influential forces behind the organization of the Jewish community in the city, serving as president throughout its existence from 1908 to 1922. The Kehillah oversaw aspects of Jewish culture, religion, education and labor issues, in addition to helping to integrate America's German and East European Jewish communities. He was also the president of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism
from 1912 to 1920.
The religious views Magnes extolled as a Reform rabbi were not all within the mainstream. Magnes favored a more traditional approach to Judaism, fearing the overly assimilationist tendencies of his peers. Magnes delivered a Passover sermon in 1910 at Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York in which he advocated changes in the Reform ritual to incorporate elements of traditional Judaism, expressing his concern that younger members of the congregation were driven to seek spirituality in other religions that cannot be obtained at Congregation Emanu-El. He advocated for restoration of the Bar Mitzvah ceremony and criticized the Union Prayer Book
, advocating for a return to the traditional prayer book. The disagreement over this issue led him to resign from Congregation Emanu-El that year. From 1911–12 he was Rabbi of the Conservative Congregation B'nai Jeshurun.
Magnes agreed, however, with the overall anti-Zionist attitudes of Reform Judaism at the time; he strongly disapproved of nationalistic aspects within Judaism, which Zionism
represented and supported. To him, Jews living in the Diaspora
and Jews living in Palestine
were of equal significance to the Judaism and Jewish culture; he agreed that a renewed Jewish community in Eretz Israel would enhance Jewish life within the Diaspora. Magnes emigrated to Palestine in 1922 and maintained that emigration to the Holy Land was a matter of individual choice; it did not reflect any kind of "negation of the Diaspora", or support for Zionism. He thought that the land of Israel should be built in a "decent manner", or not built at all.
In both America and Palestine, Magnes played a key role in founding the internationally reputed Hebrew University of Jerusalem
in 1918 along with Albert Einstein
and Chaim Weizmann
. However, the three did not get along, and when, in 1928, Magnes, who was initially responsible only for the finances and the administrative staff of the University, had his authority extended to academic and professional matters, Einstein resigned from the board of Governors. Einstein wrote:
Magnes served as the first chancellor of the Hebrew University (1925) and later as president (1935–1948) of the new institution. Magnes believed that the university was the ideal place for Jewish and Arab cooperation, and worked tirelessly to advance this goal.
Magnes's responded to the 1929 Arab revolt
in Palestine
with a call for a Binational solution
to Palestine. Magnes dedicated the rest of his life to reconciliation with the Arab
s; he particularly objected to the concept of a specifically Jewish state
. In his view, Palestine should be neither Jewish nor Arab. Rather, he advocated a binational state
in which equal rights would be shared by all, a view shared by the group Brit Shalom, an organization with which Magnes is often associated, but never joined. When the Peel Commission
made their 1937 recommendations about partition and population transfer
in Palestine, Magnes sounded the alarm:
With increasing persecution of European Jews, the outbreak of World War II
and continuing violence in Palestine, Magnes realized that his vision of a voluntary negotiated treaty between Arabs and Jews had become politically impossible. In an article in January 1942 in Foreign Affairs
he suggested a joint British-American initiative to prevent the division of mandated Palestine. The Biltmore Conference
in May that year caused Magnes and others to break from the Zionist mainstream's changed demand for a "Jewish Commonwealth". As a result, he and Henrietta Szold
founded the small, binationalist political party, Ihud
(Unity).
Magnes opposed the Partition plan. He submitted 11 objections to partition to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine
. Later, in a conversation with George Marshall
in May 4, 1948, he asked the US to impose economic sanctions on both sides. Calling the Yishuv
an "artificial community", he predicted that sanctions would halt "the Jewish war machine".
Just before his death in October 1948, he withdrew from the leadership of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
, a committee he had helped establish. The reason was that the organization had not answered his plea for help for the Palestinian refugees: "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?" (p. 519, Magnes 1982)
wrote of Magnes that he was:
The Judah L. Magnes Museum
, in Berkeley, California, the first Jewish Museum of the West, was named in Magnes' honor, and the museum's Western Jewish History Center has a large collection of papers, correspondence, publications, and photographs of Judah Magnes and members of his family. It also contains the conference proceedings of The Life and Legacy of Judah L. Magnes, an International Symposium that the museum sponsored, in 1982.
The main avenue in Hebrew University's Givat Ram
campus is named after Magnes, and so is their publishing press the Magnes Press.
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
in both the United States and Palestine. He is best remembered as a leader pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
movement of the World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
period and as one of the most widely recognized voices of 20th Century American Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
.
Biography
He was born in San Francisco, CaliforniaCalifornia
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
to David and Sophie (Abrahamson).
As a young boy, Magnes's family moved to Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, where he attended Sabbath school at First Hebrew Congregation
Temple Sinai (Oakland, California)
Temple Sinai is a Reform synagogue located at 2808 Summit Street in Oakland, California, United States...
, and was taught by Ray Frank
Ray Frank
Rachel Frank was a Jewish religious leader in the United States.-Biography:Frank was the daughter of Polish immigrants, Bernard and Leah Frank...
, the first Jewish woman to preach formally from a pulpit in the United States.
Magnes's views of the Jewish people was strongly influenced by First Hebrew's Rabbi Levy, and it was at First Hebrew's building on 13th and Clay that Magnes first began preaching. His bar mitzvah speech of 1890 was quoted at length in The Oakland Tribune
The Oakland Tribune
The Oakland Tribune is a daily newspaper published in Oakland, California, by the Bay Area News Group , a subsidiary of MediaNews Group...
.
Magnes gained a degree of notoriety while studying at the University of Cincinnati in a campaign against censorship of the "Class annual" of 1898 by the university faculty.
On Oct. 19, 1908, Magnes married Beatrice Lowenstein of New York, who happened to be Louis Marshall's sister-in-law.
In America, he spend most of his professional life in New York, where he helped found the American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee was "founded in 1906 with the aim of rallying all sections of American Jewry to defend the rights of Jews all over the world...
in 1906. Magnes was also one of the most influential forces behind the organization of the Jewish community in the city, serving as president throughout its existence from 1908 to 1922. The Kehillah oversaw aspects of Jewish culture, religion, education and labor issues, in addition to helping to integrate America's German and East European Jewish communities. He was also the president of the Society for the Advancement of Judaism
Society for the Advancement of Judaism
The Society for the Advancement of Judaism is a synagogue and Jewish organization in New York City, on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Founded in 1922 by Rabbi Mordecai M...
from 1912 to 1920.
The religious views Magnes extolled as a Reform rabbi were not all within the mainstream. Magnes favored a more traditional approach to Judaism, fearing the overly assimilationist tendencies of his peers. Magnes delivered a Passover sermon in 1910 at Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York in which he advocated changes in the Reform ritual to incorporate elements of traditional Judaism, expressing his concern that younger members of the congregation were driven to seek spirituality in other religions that cannot be obtained at Congregation Emanu-El. He advocated for restoration of the Bar Mitzvah ceremony and criticized the Union Prayer Book
Union Prayer Book
The Union Prayer Book was a siddur published by the Central Conference of American Rabbis to serve the needs of the Reform Judaism movement in the United States.-History:...
, advocating for a return to the traditional prayer book. The disagreement over this issue led him to resign from Congregation Emanu-El that year. From 1911–12 he was Rabbi of the Conservative Congregation B'nai Jeshurun.
Magnes agreed, however, with the overall anti-Zionist attitudes of Reform Judaism at the time; he strongly disapproved of nationalistic aspects within Judaism, which Zionism
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
represented and supported. To him, Jews living in the Diaspora
Jewish diaspora
The Jewish diaspora is the English term used to describe the Galut גלות , or 'exile', of the Jews from the region of the Kingdom of Judah and Roman Iudaea and later emigration from wider Eretz Israel....
and Jews living in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
were of equal significance to the Judaism and Jewish culture; he agreed that a renewed Jewish community in Eretz Israel would enhance Jewish life within the Diaspora. Magnes emigrated to Palestine in 1922 and maintained that emigration to the Holy Land was a matter of individual choice; it did not reflect any kind of "negation of the Diaspora", or support for Zionism. He thought that the land of Israel should be built in a "decent manner", or not built at all.
In both America and Palestine, Magnes played a key role in founding the internationally reputed Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
in 1918 along with Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
and Chaim Weizmann
Chaim Weizmann
Chaim Azriel Weizmann, , was a Zionist leader, President of the Zionist Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel. He was elected on 1 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952....
. However, the three did not get along, and when, in 1928, Magnes, who was initially responsible only for the finances and the administrative staff of the University, had his authority extended to academic and professional matters, Einstein resigned from the board of Governors. Einstein wrote:
The bad thing about the business was that the good Felix Warburg, thanks to his financial authority ensured that the incapable Magnes was made director of the Institute, a failed American rabbi, who, through his dilettantish enterprises had become uncomfortable to his family in America, who very much hoped to dispatch him honorably to some exotic place. This ambitious and weak person surrounded himself with other morally inferior men, who did not allow any decent person to succeed there ... These people managed to poison the atmosphere there totally and to keep the level of the institution low
Magnes served as the first chancellor of the Hebrew University (1925) and later as president (1935–1948) of the new institution. Magnes believed that the university was the ideal place for Jewish and Arab cooperation, and worked tirelessly to advance this goal.
Magnes's responded to the 1929 Arab revolt
1929 Palestine riots
The 1929 Palestine riots, also known as the Western Wall Uprising, the 1929 Massacres, , or the Buraq Uprising , refers to a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 when a long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated into violence...
in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
with a call for a Binational solution
Binational solution
The one-state solution and the similar binational solution are proposed approaches to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Proponents of a binational solution to the conflict advocate either a single state in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or a single state in Israel and the West...
to Palestine. Magnes dedicated the rest of his life to reconciliation with the Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
s; he particularly objected to the concept of a specifically Jewish state
Jewish state
A homeland for the Jewish people was an idea that rose to the fore in the 19th century in the wake of growing anti-Semitism and Jewish assimilation. Jewish emancipation in Europe paved the way for two ideological solutions to the Jewish Question: cultural assimilation, as envisaged by Moses...
. In his view, Palestine should be neither Jewish nor Arab. Rather, he advocated a binational state
Binational solution
The one-state solution and the similar binational solution are proposed approaches to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Proponents of a binational solution to the conflict advocate either a single state in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or a single state in Israel and the West...
in which equal rights would be shared by all, a view shared by the group Brit Shalom, an organization with which Magnes is often associated, but never joined. When the Peel Commission
Peel Commission
The Peel Commission of 1936-1937, formally known as the Palestine Royal Commission, was a British Royal Commission of Inquiry set out to propose changes to the British Mandate of Palestine following the outbreak of the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine...
made their 1937 recommendations about partition and population transfer
Population transfer
Population transfer is the movement of a large group of people from one region to another by state policy or international authority, most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion...
in Palestine, Magnes sounded the alarm:
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 [..] New York Times, July 18, 1937.
With increasing persecution of European Jews, the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and continuing violence in Palestine, Magnes realized that his vision of a voluntary negotiated treaty between Arabs and Jews had become politically impossible. In an article in January 1942 in Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...
he suggested a joint British-American initiative to prevent the division of mandated Palestine. The Biltmore Conference
Biltmore Conference
The Biltmore Conference, also known by its resolution as the Biltmore Program, was a fundamental departure from traditional Zionist policy with its demand "that Palestine be established as a Jewish Commonwealth." The meeting was held in New York City at the prestigious Biltmore Hotel from May 6...
in May that year caused Magnes and others to break from the Zionist mainstream's changed demand for a "Jewish Commonwealth". As a result, he and Henrietta Szold
Henrietta Szold
Henrietta Szold was a U.S. Jewish Zionist leader and founder of the Hadassah Women's Organization. In 1942, she co-founded Ihud, a political party in Mandate Palestine dedicated to a binational solution.-Biography:...
founded the small, binationalist political party, Ihud
Ihud
Ihud was a small binationalist Zionist political party founded by Judah Leon Magnes, Martin Buber, Ernst Simon and Henrietta Szold, former supporters of Brit Shalom, in 1942 following the Biltmore Conference. The party was dedicated to Arab–Jewish reconciliation, and advocated an Arab–Jewish state...
(Unity).
Magnes opposed the Partition plan. He submitted 11 objections to partition to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine
United Nations Special Committee on Palestine
The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine was formed in May 1947 in response to a United Kingdom government request that the General Assembly "make recommendations under article 10 of the Charter, concerning the future government of Palestine"...
. Later, in a conversation with George Marshall
George Marshall
George Catlett Marshall was an American military leader, Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary of State, and the third Secretary of Defense...
in May 4, 1948, he asked the US to impose economic sanctions on both sides. Calling the Yishuv
Yishuv
The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel...
an "artificial community", he predicted that sanctions would halt "the Jewish war machine".
Just before his death in October 1948, he withdrew from the leadership of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is a worldwide Jewish relief organization headquartered in New York. It was established in 1914 and is active in more than 70 countries....
, a committee he had helped establish. The reason was that the organization had not answered his plea for help for the Palestinian refugees: "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?" (p. 519, Magnes 1982)
Legacy
Memorializing his passing, the Union of American Hebrew CongregationsUnion for Reform Judaism
The Union for Reform Judaism , formerly known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations , is an organization which supports Reform Jewish congregations in North America. The current President is Rabbi Eric H...
wrote of Magnes that he was:
...One of the most distinguished rabbis of our age, a son of the Hebrew Union CollegeHebrew Union CollegeThe Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is the oldest extant Jewish seminary in the Americas and the main seminary for training rabbis, cantors, educators and communal workers in Reform Judaism.HUC-JIR has campuses in Cincinnati, New York, Los Angeles and Jerusalem.The Jerusalem...
, a former rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, New York, the founder and first chancellor of the Hebrew University, the leader of the movement for good will between Jews and Arabs in PalestinePalestinePalestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, a man of prophetic stature by whose life and works the traditions of the rabbinate, as well as the spiritual traditions of all mankind were enriched.
The Judah L. Magnes Museum
Judah L. Magnes Museum
The Judah L. Magnes Museum is a museum of Jewish history, art, and culture in Berkeley, California. It was founded in 1962 by Seymour and Rebecca Fromer and named for Jewish activist Rabbi Judah L. Magnes, a native of Oakland...
, in Berkeley, California, the first Jewish Museum of the West, was named in Magnes' honor, and the museum's Western Jewish History Center has a large collection of papers, correspondence, publications, and photographs of Judah Magnes and members of his family. It also contains the conference proceedings of The Life and Legacy of Judah L. Magnes, an International Symposium that the museum sponsored, in 1982.
The main avenue in Hebrew University's Givat Ram
Givat Ram
Givat Ram is a neighborhood in central Jerusalem, Israel. Many of Israel's most important national institutions are located in Givat Ram, among them the Knesset, the Israel Museum, the National Library of Israel and the Israeli Supreme Court.-Etymology:...
campus is named after Magnes, and so is their publishing press the Magnes Press.
Works
- The Jewish Community of New York City. New York: n.p., 1909.
- Russia and Germany at Brest-Litovsk: A Documentary History of the Peace Negotiations. New York: Rand School of Social Science, 1919.
- Amnesty for Political Prisoners: Address Delivered in Washington, D.C. on April 17, 1919. New York: National Civil Liberties Bureau, n.d. [1919].
- War-time Addresses, 1917–1921. New York: Thomas Seltzer, 1923.
- Addresses by the Chancellor of the Hebrew University. Jerusalem: Azriel Press, 1936.
- Palestine — Divided or United? The Case for a Bi-National Palestine before the United Nations. With M. Reiner; Lord Samuel; E. Simon; M. Smilansky. Jerusalem: Ihud, 1947.
Further reading
- Arthur A. Goren (ed.), Dissenter in Zion: From the Writings of Judah L. Magnes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.
- William M. Brinner and Moses Rischin, Like All the Nations?: The Life and Legacy of Judah L. Magnes. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1987.
External links
- Judah L. Magnes Museum
- Jewish-American Hall of Fame: Judah L. Magnes (1877–1948)
- Memorial Resolution for Rabbi Judah Leon Magnes
- History of Brit Shalom
- Britannica
- Jewish Virtual Library
- Magnes Press
See also
- Martin BuberMartin BuberMartin Buber was an Austrian-born Jewish philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of religious existentialism centered on the distinction between the I-Thou relationship and the I-It relationship....
, Ernst SimonErnst SimonErnst Akiba/Akiva Simon, or aqibhah Ernst Simon , was a German-Israeli Jewish educator, and religious philosopher. Along with Martin Buber, he founded in the 1920s one of the earliest Israeli peace groups, Brit Shalom, which advocated for a binational state including Jews and Arabs... - Brit Shalom
- Binational solutionBinational solutionThe one-state solution and the similar binational solution are proposed approaches to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Proponents of a binational solution to the conflict advocate either a single state in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, or a single state in Israel and the West...