American Jewish Conference was an ad hoc organization that first met in Pittsburg in January 1943, and had its first official conference in August that year. The initial meeting included delegates from thirty-two national Jewish organizations. It was called to decide upon the role that the American Jewish community would play in representing Jewish demands after the war and helping to build Jewish Palestine. The result was the creation of the American Jewish Conference, which consisted of sixty-four Jewish groups, including American Jewish Committee

American Jewish Committee

The American Jewish Committee was "founded in 1906 with the aim of rallying all sections of American Jewry to defend the rights of Jews all over the world...

; it constituted the most representative gathering of American Jews ever.

At the first meeting, moderate American Zionists

Zionism

Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...

 including Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise

Stephen Samuel Wise

Stephen Samuel Wise was an Austro-Hungarian-born American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader.-Early life:...

, were eager to concentrate on supporting Zionism through philanthropy and play down the "maximalist" goal of a “Jewish commonwealth.” Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver

Abba Hillel Silver

Abba Hillel Silver was a U.S. Rabbi and Zionist leader. He was a key figure in the mobilization of American support for the founding of the State of Israel.-Biography:...

, representing the maximalists, called for the delegates to endorse the Biltmore Program. Silver's followers characterized the contrast between the two as "Aggressive Zionism" versus "the Politics of the Green Light [from the White House]." He also attacked Wise’s views, which upset the delegates from the American Jewish Committee, and caused them to walk out. The conference proceeded and sided with Silver and he emerged from the meeting as the new leader of American Zionism. Silver called for “loud diplomacy.” Edward Tivnan writes, “The American Jewish community now had a full-fledged “Jewish lobby.” In 1943, Silver cranked up the Zionist Organization of America

Zionist Organization of America

The Zionist Organization of America , founded in 1897, was one of the first official Zionist organizations in the United States, and, especially early in the 20th century, the primary representative of Jewish Americans to the World Zionist Organization, espousing primarily Political Zionism.Today,...

’s one-man lobbying operation in Washington --- renaming it the American Zionist Emergency Council (AZEC) --- and began to mobilize American Jewry into a mass movement.”

In December 1943, the American Jewish Conference launched a public attack against Hillel Kook

Hillel Kook

Hillel Kook , also known as Peter Bergson , was a Revisionist Zionist activist, politician, and prominent member of the Irgun.-Early life:...

 and the “Bergson Group” in an attempt to reduce support for the Irgun

Irgun

The Irgun , or Irgun Zevai Leumi to give it its full title , was a Zionist paramilitary group that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the earlier and larger Jewish paramilitary organization haHaganah...

 and Revisionist Zionism

Revisionist Zionism

Revisionist Zionism is a nationalist faction within the Zionist movement. It is the founding ideology of the non-religious right in Israel, and was the chief ideological competitor to the dominant socialist Labor Zionism...

 in the US and their agenda to more actively rescue European Jews. Following the victory of World War II Abraham Cronbach

Abraham Cronbach

Abraham Cronbach was an American Rabbi, teacher and known pacifist. He served as a rabbi for congregations in Indiana and Ohio. Cronbach was one of the founders of the Peace Heroes Memorial Society.-Personal life:...

 wrote letters to American Jewish Conference and other Jewish organizations asking that they not seek punishment of Nazi war criminals.

Philip Morris Klutznick

Philip Morris Klutznick

Philip Morris Klutznick was a U.S. administrator who served as U.S. Secretary of Commerce from January 9, 1980 to January 19, 1981 under President Jimmy Carter....

, the newly elected president of B’nai B’rith in the early 1950s, remembers the difficulties of getting any consensus in the "majority rule” American Jewish Conference.