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.]
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