United Israel World Union was founded in 1944 as a global movement dedicated to the promotion of the universal values of the Decalogue Faith and the vision of the Hebrew Prophets to be a light to the nations.
By the decade of the fifties, the organization was gaining impressive exposure. Founder David Horowitz’s influential positions as President of UIWU and as a United Nations correspondent provided opportunities to make contacts, network, promote the vision, and solicit support, from the least to the powerful and influential. An informative newsletter, the United Israel Bulletin, reached a vast mailing list that included important VIPs locally and internationally. There was coverage in the New York Times and other metro and local newspapers, and interviews on Radio Station WLIB in New York.
Responding to UIWU’s concept and unique approach were an array of influential and notable people. These were incredibly gifted folks like Edmond Flug, Robert H. Pfeiffer, Dr. Schalom Ben Chorin, along with Rudy Boyko, who was instrumental in the founding of Ben Guerion University of the Negev.
These were not mere courteous and cordial acknowledgments of appreciation, but genuine endorsements. With a weary world seeking to recover from the horrors of World War II and with the re-born State of Israel now on the world stage, it seemed a mission whose time had come.
The following compilation, while certainly not exhaustive, represents a brief look at the role and influence of United Israel World Union, as others viewed it, during this historical period.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s a growing number of American Rabbis began stressing the universality of the Torah Faith. Under the inspired leadership of Conservative Rabbi Dr. Robert Gordis, Professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Reform Rabbi David Max Eichhorn, and Orthodox Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung, spiritual leader of the Jewish Center of New York, the initiative spread to include over a dozen other distinguished Rabbis and leaders. Their spokesman, Dr. Gordis, was quoted as saying “Judaism is no narrow limited creed, it is a way of life, a body of truth.” Dr. Gordis also recognized UIWU as a “pathfinder” in the direction of disseminating the Decalogue Faith globally.
Rabbi Dr. W. Gunther Plaut of St. Paul, Minnesota’s one hundred year old Mt. Zion Temple was a strong proponent of the universality of Israel’s faith and an advocate of UIWU, Dr. Plaut once stated, “I believe firmly that there is a great future for United Israel World Union and the ideals for which it stands. The judgment of history will uphold UIWU’s hands.”
Rabbi Samuel S. Lerer of Temple Beth Sholem of Hollywood, Fl., who in the late 1950’s led United Synagogue Youth Pilgrimages to Israel, was an active promoter and board member of UIWU. He envisioned a bright future for the movement, describing it as “pioneering a mission advocated by the great prophets of Israel.” He perhaps expressed it best in a letter to David Horowitz when he said: “I wish to convey my deep gratitude for your dedicated work in bringing the Judaic faith unto the nations of the earth. Your missionary work that brings pure monotheism and Torah-faith to mankind, which is now merely a trickling spring of clear water, will eventually develop into a great fountain that will break forth into many springs from which humanity will drink.”
In March 1959, a unique event in American Jewish history took place in Trenton, New Jersey that set a precedent in rabbinical annals. It was a Jewish “Preaching Mission” directed by Rabbi Joshua O. Haberman of Trenton’s Har Sinai Temple and Dr. Abraham Shusterman, Rabbi of Baltimore’s Har Sinai Congregation. The purpose of the mission, which had the official endorsement of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, was to win back the unaffiliated to the Hebraic Faith and at the same time bring its eternal message to non-Jews.
On September 23-26, 1959, the Second Rabbis’ “Preaching Mission” took place at the Tremont Temple, 2064 Grand Concourse, in the Bronx. The unique 3-day pioneering program had the full support of the New York Association of Reform Congregations and the Central Conference of American Rabbis’ Committee on the Unaffiliated. Several of America’s outstanding Rabbis participated including Dr. Maurice J. Bloom, Tremont’s dynamic spiritual leader.
Dr. Solomon Grayzel, well-known editor of The Jewish Publication Society (publisher of the JPS version of the Bible) was also a strong proponent of UIWU’s activities of spreading the eternal ideals of the Hebraic Faith. Declaring a Jewish missionary program imperative, he stated in an article that the idea of bringing the millions of people in Asia into the Hebraic fold “has much to recommend it.”
In June 1955, David Horowitz became a charter member of “Judaism Universal,” a new international society for the propagation of the Hebrew faith as a world religion funded in New York City. Endorsed and blessed by Chabad Lubavitch Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, “Judaism Universal” adopted the following three-point program: to reclaim the Jewish youth; to Judaize the Jews; and to draw within the sphere of Jewish life neglected Jewish communities in isolated parts of the world, including non-Jewish populations who hunger after universal truth and righteousness.
The movement also extended beyond the United States as others supported the concept of a universal faith outreach. Examples include:
1955: Creation in Israel of the “Agudah L’ma’an Gerej Hazedeq B’Yisrael Ubas-Olam,” an Israeli counterpart of UIWU, with established units in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. Among the many prominent Israeli personalities were Joseph Schur, Dr. Israel Ben Zeev, Dr. Wolfgang von Weisl, Schalom Ben Chorin, Miriam Dayan, Zvi Levitsky, Dr. A. Regensburger, Dr. Josef Marcus, and Moshe Levine.
It was established as “an Institute in behalf of the Righteous Proselytes and for the Return of the Dispersed of Israel.” They had their own official publication and received interest from the Israeli Chief Rabbinate and the Israeli Press. The organizational seeds were sown in 1955 when David Horowitz met with UIWU advocate Joseph Schur and Dr. Israel Ben Zeev, a Bar Ilan University professor who headed the movement. They remained in consultation with Horowitz throughout the development process.
The Chief Sefardic Rabbi of Haifa, Israel, Nissim Ouchana was a friend of David Horowitz and United Israel World Union. The World Union for the Propagation of Judaism in Israel received his approval and endorsement.
In 1958, Dr. Mordoqueo I. Salomon, well-known New York physician, scholar, and a board member of United Israel World Union, met at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan with numerous Japanese leaders including a group of prominent Japanese proselytes headed by Dr. Masayuki Kobayashi, professor of history at Tokyo University. Others included Shlomo Nishiyama, director of the Japanese-Israeli Association.
The meeting included a discussion of the ways and means of extending the activities of UIWU in Japan. Nishiyama also traveled to Israel where he met with leaders of The Israeli Institute for The World Union for the Propagation of Judaism (the UIWU counter-part). The discussion centered upon the propagation of the Decalogue Faith to the Orient.
Dr. Charles Lehrman, the Chief Rabbi of Luxembourg who called for the establishment of a World Council of Synagogues, was an old and faithful friend of UIWU.
Prominent leaders in the business and medical fields were also among the strong advocates of UIWU. Among the notables were:
Harry Leventhal, prominent textile industry baron, and a well-known philanthropist in New York. He was active in the United Jewish Appeal, B’nai B’rith, multiple State of Israel Bond Drives and identified with more that 50 philanthropic organizations in the US and abroad. Mr. Leventhal was also a vice-president of the Society of Jewish Science and a member of UIWU where he served as a co-publisher of the United Israel Bulletin.
Dr. Wolfgang von Weisl, prominent Israeli physician, and renowned journalist and author, in a message to the “International Congress for Cultivating Human Spirit,” in Tokyo, Japan in May 1961, declared that “Judaism has something to offer humanity that no other religion or political philosophy does.” He presented a powerful case that the Torah Faith of Israel could help to solve the major problems besetting mankind today.
Dr. von Weisl was a longtime friend of UIWU and active as an officer of the Israel World Union for the Propagation of Judaism. Dr. von Weisl appeared as the main speaker at a United Israel World union rally held at the Paramount Ballroom in New York City in 1952.
In the fall of 1959, UIWU added a special staff member. Dr. Benjamin Leavin joined the editorial staff as an Associate Editor. Educated at City College of New York and Columbia University, Dr. Leavin was the president of the Great Eastern Construction Company. With numerous projects including designing the unique “Four Chaplains Pool” in the Bronx, Dr. Leavin was also a talented musician and artist and was once referred to by the New York Times as “the contractor who builds subways by day and sings songs by night.” The recipient of numerous awards and doctorates, Dr. Leavin felt UIWU “could provide a common basis of faith that could be understood and lived, ultimately providing a measure of reconciliation between the branches of our faith.”
Perhaps none were more impressive than the legendary Hirsch Loeb Gordon, M.D. A holder of six Doctorates and four Masters in ten different fields-having studied medicine in New York, Berlin and Rome-Dr. Gordon specialized in neuropsychiatry with offices at 755 West End Ave., New York.
During World War I, Dr. Gordon volunteered in the Jewish Legion, spending two years in Israel under Zeev Jabotinsky. During World War II Commander Gordon served as Major, M.C. on a neuropsychiatric assignment followed by similar assignments in the Veterans Administration and in the Neuropsychiatric Consultants Division, Office of the Surgeon General, U. S. Army.
Dr. Gordon wrote the book “The Maggid of Caro” (Pardess Publishing House Inc., 1949). It was a unique volume dealing with the highly sensitive and intricate subject of Kaballah and mysticism in the light of modern psychiatry. He had long been fascinated with the notion of “visitations” and has a chapter on Monitions- direct communications from God to humble mortals-in the book.
In one of Gordon’s interviews, he said it took him ten years to write “The Maggid of Caro” using five hundred original sources covering two thousand items. Nolan D. C. Lewis, Director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute commented that the data was of the greatest importance to the world of psychiatry and that Dr. Gordon “has done a real service to psychiatric and philosophical thought.”
Here’s what Dr. Hirsch Loeb Gordon had to say regarding the work of United Israel World Union: “Your Movement to send the Chariot of YHVH across the firmament of the pagan world to finish the mission begun at Sinai and crush the false idols is most inspiring.”
Others associated with UIWU in its earlier days were people like Jacob Goldfarb, who came to this country from his native Poland as a child. He worked as a Western Union messenger and as a Wall Street runner, where he earned $9 a week. Finally, he became a “utility boy” in the garment district. . He founded the Union Underwear Company in 1926. You might remember their line of underwear: “Fruit of the Loom.” His major contributions over the years went to MIT, New York University Medical Center, Sarah Lawrence College and Albert Einstein College—but most of all to Brandeis University, where he was a trustee and the treasurer. Goldfarb was a friend of David Horowitz and among the featured speakers at the gala 30th Anniversary Dinner of UIWU that took place in 1973.
Also weighing in on the developing issue of the propagation of the Hebraic faith at that time was former French Ambassador to Israel, Monsieur Pierre E. Gilbert, who did more perhaps than any other person to cement Israel-French friendship during one of the most critical moments in the history of the Jewish State, the 1956 Suez Crisis. Ambassador Gilbert declared that the Jewish peoples “had been chosen by God to bring Monotheism to the whole world” and that “the Jews were destined to become a people of priests, therefore they must be worthy of their mission.”
United Israel World Union has completed 79 years of global activities on behalf of a unified Israel and the universal values of the Decalogue faith. Though the visions of the Hebrew Prophets remain an elusive ideal, the day may yet come when these lofty ideals are realized. It’s the cry of a weary world threatened still by ancient hatreds and new plagues, yet still seeking redemption and restoration. All people during their season of reflection and hope wish for peace on earth and goodwill toward men.
Justice and mercy, basic tenants of the Decalogue faith, have always seemed a good place for mankind to begin.
Ralph Buntyn is executive vice president and associate editor of United Israel World Union. An author, historian and researcher, his many articles and essays have appeared in various media outlets.