In early February 1949 American Jewry s most popular and powerful leader, Abba Hillel Silver (1893 1963), had summarily resigned from all his official positions within the Zionist movement and had left New York for Cleveland, returning to his post as a Reform rabbi. In the immediate years prior to his resignation, during the second half of the 1940s, Silver was the most outspoken proponent of the founding of a sovereign Jewish state. He was the most instrumental American Jewish leader in the political struggle that led to the foundation of the State of Israel....
In early February 1949 American Jewry s most popular and powerful leader, Abba Hillel Silver (1893 1963), had summarily resigned from all h...