The Status Quo
Agreement, and Why Agudah Didn’t Advocate Against a State
Recently the newspapers
Hamodia (6/9/2021) and Yated Neeman (6/25/2021) have published accounts of the
“Status Quo” agreement reached between Agudath Israel and the Zionists in
summer of 1947, in which the Zionist leadership made four promises relating to
religion in the state they planned to found, in exchange for Agudah’s
commitment not to advocate against a state before the UN Special Committee on
Palestine. The four items promised were: Shabbos would be the official day of
rest in the state; all food in state institutions would be kosher; marriage and
divorce would be under the guidance of the rabbinate, and the right to
autonomous religious education would be guaranteed.
The two newspapers tell
more or less the same story, and one surprising fact stands out. Most people
who know this story are under the impression that the Agudah made a deal with
the devil, so to speak: they promised not to prevent the state from coming into
being, and got this compromise in return. However, the Hamodia and Yated
articles say clearly that even before the deal, Agudah leader Yitzchok Meir
Levin had decided not to speak either for or against a state, and claimed to
have received instructions from the gedolim on this point.
[As we quote from various
places, we will use the labels “Reason 1,2,3” etc. to keep track of the
different reasons given as to why Agudah did not speak against the proposed
state.]
Full Reading:
https://www.truetorahjews.org/status-quo-agreement-and-why-agudah-didn%E2%80%99t-advocate-against-state
tags:
Agudah
Partition Plan
United Nations
History
Rabbi
Yosef Tzvi Dushinsky
