Tikvah
Editors’ Pick

April 19, 2018

After 70 Years, God May Have Solved Israel’s Theological Dilemma

Ben-Gurion, Thomas Jefferson, and declarations of independence.

Ready to declare independence, the soon-to-be government of Israel found itself at an impasse: the religious Zionist leader Rabbi Yehudah Leib Maimon refused to sign a declaration that did not mention God, while the leader of the more extreme socialists refused to sign a declaration that did. David Ben-Gurion solved the problem by introducing into the text the ambiguous phrase “the Rock of Israel.” Meir Soloveichik comments on this controversy, and its American equivalent:

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