THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR (1941-1942)

The two-year period between the Cincinnati and Creamridge conventions was difficult for us as individuals and as a movement. We saw the destruction of the Jewish people—one Jewish community after another fell before the drive of the Hitler hordes; our brethren in Europe were beaten into the dust, enslaved; the labor movement throughout the world was being destroyed by the forces of fascism and reaction; our ideals of peace, equality, and justice seemed to have been vanquished. This was the mood of those years. Nevertheless, the movement carried on and progressed. The entrance of the United States into the war brought to the movement innumerable problems which had to be solved if we wished to remain a dynamic youth organization. Many of our leading chaverim had already entered the armed forces, and the positions of leadership in the machanot and in the merkaz were beginning to be transferred to younger chaverim.

The moatza (national council), decided upon by the Cincinnati convention, met in December, 1941. Plans were worked out for sending small groups of younger chaverim to various cities, where they would support themselves collectively and take over the leadership of machanot that already existed or organize new ones. With respect to the war, it was decided that Habonim give full support to Americans war effort. That meant enlistment for the older chaverim and participation in all branches of civilian defense for the younger chaverim. Each machaneh was to volunteer its full support to the local defense board and to cooperate with it in every possible way. This also meant a period of intensification of our Zionist work, larger quotas for the funds, intensification of our educational work, increased financial support for the organizational fund of the movement, more chaverim in the Kibbutz Aliya framework, increased propaganda and influence among young Jews everywhere, and an intensification of our organizational efforts. The highlight of the moatza was a closed meeting with David Ben-Gurion, who answered questions presented by the chaverim on the Jewish army, the Revisionists, the political situation in Eretz Israel, and plans for the future.

During the early war years, the movement responded to every call of the Central Committee of the Poale Zion for political Zionist activities. In addition, we were instrumental in initiating political activity in Zionist youth circles and in Jewish youth circles. Time and time again we were called upon to participate in protest meetings and in "days of mourning." We participated in the "Defend Palestine Rallies" and in the Balfour Day meetings. We did everything possible to carry out the decisions of all Zionist bodies with regard to the question of the Jewish army. Our chaverim sent telegrams to the President and to the State Department regarding the situation in Palestine. Habonim was well represented at the Extraordinary Conference of Zionist Organizations, held in May, 1942; it was at this conference that the Biltmore Program, the program of maximum Zionist demands, was adopted.

The movement was kept informed of developments in American political life by circular and through our publications. Special emphasis was placed on petition activity; chaverim participated in the sending of telegrams to Washington regarding the Alien Bill, the question of convoys to Britain, and the question of neutrality. In New York State the chaverim participated in the work of the old American Labor Party. Considerable time was spent in discussing the problems confronting the Jewish people in Europe, and the leadership of the movement participated actively in the preparatory work which finally led to the establishment of the American Jewish Conference. Many of these activities were conducted in conjunction with the senior movement, and older groups in several cities were transferred to the Poale Zion. The movement also continued its activities in the various national Zionist and Jewish youth councils.

Attempts were made to systematize the educational work of the movement. There were constant discussions about the value of presenting standard programs for the four age levels. A curriculum was presented for consideration to the Cream Ridge convention in December, 1942. Leaders' groups and leadership-training programs functioned in most cities. Labor Zionist schools, studio days, annual conferences, productions, and exhibits became widespread instruments for education in the movement. Haboneh appeared regularly for the younger chaverim, and News and Views appeared as a bi-weekly, four-page publication designed for older members. After a great deal of discussion, it was decided to discontinue the publication of News and Views and to substitute furrows, a monthly magazine for young adults. In addition, many pamphlets and program guides appeared. These publications reached hundreds of non-members, as well as Habonim and many young Zionists in all parts of the world.

Camp Kvutza continued to be the most important institution of the movement and continued to make progress. The most difficult test for Camp Kvutza, that of manpower, came during the summer of 1942, the first summer of the country at war. Nevertheless, fifty chaverim served on camp staffs in a voluntary capacity. In all, fifteen hundred chaverim participated in the camps in 1942, in comparison with twelve hundred in 1941 and one thousand in 1940. The seminars held toward the end of the summer of 1942, particularly one at Killingworth, were marked by the feeling that the new younger generation and the chaverot, to a more marked extent, must prepare to take over positions of responsibility, on a local as well as on a national scale. Intensive study at the seminars was specifically directed toward that end.

The best indication of the intensity of the movement was the report of work for the funds. During the two-year period, over eleven thousand dollars was raised for the Histadrut, Hechalutz, and the movement itself. The major fund-raising effort of the movement, however, was the work for the Jewish National Fund. A special Habonim conference for JNF was held in 1941, and during the two year period almost twenty-two thousand dollars was raised for this fund.

Even prior to the entrance of the United States into the war, the merkaz established a War Efforts Committee. It was the responsibility of this committee to maintain contact with our chaverim in the armed forces; to stimulate and coordinate the activities of our chaverim in civilian defense, salvage activities. Red Cross war activities, and blood donors' groups; and see to it that all our chaverim participated in the purchase of war bonds and war stamps.

One of the most important functions of the merkaz during 1941-42 was the establishment of contacts with our chaverim in the armed forces. When the Cream Ridge convention met, there were already one hundred fifty chaverim in the armed forces of the United States and Canada. Every effort was made to write to each of these chaverim regularly, to send them material and publications, to send them holiday packages, and to arrange for their hospitality when they visited near-by cities. The merkaz was also responsible for maintaining contact with the chaverim of the young-adult branches of the Poale Zion who were in the armed forces.

One hundred fifty chaverim in Hechalutz were organized into a framework called Kibbutz Aliya. Chaverim were receiving their hachshara at Cream Ridge, and a Hechalutz house operated in Chicago for a brief period for a group of chaverim who had completed their training.

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For five days and a good part of five nights, one hundred eighty chaverim of Habonim gathered for the national convention at the Hechalutz farm in Cream Ridge, New Jersey. They came from nearly every city where Habonim existed, from as far as Dallas and St. Louis, Los Angeles and Winnipeg, in the knowledge that, for the duration of the war, this might be the last national gathering of Habonim, and therefore one of unusual significance.

One basic problem loomed large at the convention: What shall be the future of the movement? Would it find the inner strength to survive and to grow and to fulfill its promise in the difficult days to come? It was not easy, immediately after the convention, to analyze in detail wherein it succeeded in meeting the specific, pressing problems of the movement; but that the big question was answered in the affirmative was beyond anyone's doubt when the convention was over. The answer was to be found not alone in the deliberations of the various sessions, but in the unmistakable feeling of the chaverim that, because of their firmness and clarity of purpose, they were able to list accomplishments far out of proportion to their numerical strength; that they would continue to do so in growing degree regardless of adverse conditions; that the movement had responsibilities to the community and to Zionism which it must at all costs discharge. It was this feeling of historic purpose which gave the entire convention its character and tone.

That this was a war-time convention was evident at the very opening by the presence of a goodly number of chaverim in uniform. But the war was more deeply felt in every aspect of the convention, as exemplified by this resolution on European Jewry:

The Seventeenth Convention of Habonim honors the memory of countless thousands of innocent and defenseless Jewish martyrs who have been the victims of the Nazi reign of terror. The objective of the Nazi regime is now clear: it is the complete annihilation of the Jews in all the areas which are under Axis control.

We call upon the United Nations governments to seek means of compelling the Nazis to desist from continuing their program of extermination. Threats of punishment after the war are not enough.

We would like our voices to carry to those of our fellow Jews who are still alive in concentration camps, in ghettos, and in slave labor battalions. We want them to know that we identify ourselves with them every moment of the day; that we share their torment and pain; that we honor and revere the great number among them who continue to keep up their courage and faith; that we pledge to do all in our power to help them survive until the hour of victory over our enemies and the days of freedom for all Jews.

The war in its general aspects and its effect upon the fortunes of the movement were in the center of all deliberations. Among the questions in the latter category were these: how to introduce the younger elements into positions of leadership in the movement; how to maintain contact with the chaverim in the armed forces; how to bring an understanding of Zionism to the soldier, and how to utilize the press of the movement for that purpose; how to maintain the institutions of the movement, particularly the Camp Kvutzot, amid war-time conditions; how to prepare the movement for its tasks after the war, including its chalutz. tasks in Eretz Israel.

Guest speakers occupied the convention's first day. On the opening night, Hayim Greenberg pointed to the loss of moral values and principles, the loss of the sense that "values are valuable," as perhaps the basic cause of the deep crisis of our civilization. In the post-war world there must be no separation between freedom and equality such as brought about the rise of the totalitarian states. The soldier who has a tragic function to perform is a passing phenomenon. The permanent elements of civilization are the constructive ones—the workers, the farmers, the builders. Other speakers included Israel Mereminsky, of the Histadrut, and Dr. Aryeh Kubowitski, a leader of European Labor Zionism.

The decision of the convention to instruct all chaverim to leave Avukah, the student Zionist organization of that time, came as the culmination of a development which was several years old. It sprang from two sources: from a sense of the failure and futility of all attempts at changing the organizational set-up of Avukah so that it might in reality serve as a Federation of Student Zionists, and, more strongly, from a growing sense of dissatisfaction with Avukah's political line. The delegates felt it an anomaly for chaverim of Habonim to be members of an organization whose publications repeatedly attack the political program of the Labor Zionist movement.

Because of its sectarianism, Avukah lost all chance of becoming a significant force for Zionism among Jewish college students. The break with Avukah cleared the way for chaverim of Habonim to come into contact with larger numbers of students, by establishing, together with other students, Zionist groups of wider appeal, through cooperation with other Jewish student bodies, whenever such cooperation could be based on a Zionist program; or through organizing Habonim groups in the colleges, wherever that was feasible.

The convention voted in favor of introducing a unified dues payment (mas achid) into the organization. This included the usual membership fee, the payment of the shekel, a subscription to furrows) a special levy for all Habonim publications, a minimum contribution to the organization fund (to be enlarged according to the individual's ability to pay), and token payments to the Jewish National Fund and to the Histadrut.

This decision was more than a merely administrative reform. Through it, every member became, in effect, a partner to every undertaking of the movement. Furthermore, the inclusion of the shekel and the payments to the Jewish National Fund and Histadrut had the effect of personally identifying the chaver with the Zionist movement as his central interest and concern. The readiness of the delegates to adopt this plan was a tribute to their Zionist maturity and a good omen for the movement's future.

The selection of the Hechalutz farm as the site of the convention was symbolic of the fact that the idea of chalutziut, though not an obligation for every member, nevertheless had become the tie which bound all Habonim together. The contact with the Habonim "graduates" in Eretz Israel who, as members of Kibbutz Anglo-Balti, were preparing to settle in Naame; the trends introduced by the war and the changes in the position of many individuals which it brought about, all played their part in this development. The five days spent as a collective on the Hechalutz farm accelerated this trend. Despite the call of the draft upon the older chaverim, an extension of the aliya-oriented activities of Habonim took place.

There were many resolutions adopted, but there was one resolution which symbolized the entire convention—the "service resolution," the resolve of every chaver to be ready to place himself at the disposal of the movement in whatever capacity he would be needed. It was a sweeping decision; but, though the terms of this service were never clearly defined, the spirit behind it was clear: to do all that was humanly possible to make sure that the movement and the ideas which it fostered would come out of the war ordeal strengthened in body and soul.

D.B., 1960