Zionist argument: The Agudah permitted a state in 1937

Claim: The Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of Agudath Israel in 1937 agreed to a Jewish state.

Fact: The resolutions produced by the Moetzes in 1937 were a compromise reached after arguments between those opposed to any state because it would be tantamount to denial of the coming of moshiach (among them Rabbi Elchonon Wasserman, Rabbi Aharon Kotler and Rabbi Mordechai Rottenberg) and those in favor (among them Rabbi Zalman Sorotzkin and Rabbi Yehuda Leib Zirelsohn). The resolutions rejected the 1937 British proposal for a state, but for incidental reasons – the borders and the irreligious nature of the state.

Those few in the Moetzes in favor of a state were certainly going a step further than Rabbi Meir Simcha and the Avnei Nezer, who merely permitted large-scale immigration. And it is not clear whether they can be considered poskei hador with the same stature as Reb Aharon and Reb Elchonon. But in any case, even they were only talking about a state given by the British and peacefully established. Their words have no bearing on what happened in 1948.

The records of the Knessia do not tell us how the pro-state rabbis explained the Three Oaths, but we have on record a 1944 letter from Yaakov Rosenheim, the founder and political leader of Agudah, that explains their position: “The agreement of Agudah to the establishment of a state before the coming of moshiach is based on the rulings of the Gedolei Torah. However, those rulings depend on two basic conditions, which are far from reality and possibility: 1) the state must be conducted in accordance with Torah and tradition; 2) there must be peace with the Arabs. The second condition is in order to fulfill the oath against going up as a wall (Kesubos 111a). This oath forbids us to take any military action or conquest of the land against the will of the Arabs and the governments of the world. The oath prohibiting rebellion against the nations refers to revolution by military force… I do not believe that under the current circumstances it is possible to have a state according to Torah law… I would consider the founding of a state to be a disaster and a misfortune.” (Mikatowitz Ad Hei B’Iyar, p. 340)