Biltmore Conference

"[2] The meeting was held in New York City, at the prestigious Biltmore Hotel, from May 6 to May 11, 1942, with 600 delegates and Zionist leaders from 18 countries attending.

[4] Prior to this Extraordinary Zionist Conference at the Biltmore, official Zionism had steadfastly refused to formulate the ultimate aim of the movement but preferred to concentrate on the practical task of building the Jewish National Home.

[6] The major shift at Biltmore was prompted by intense common opposition to the British White Paper of 1939, which interpreted the terms of the Mandate in a way that would freeze "the Jewish community to a permanent minority status", and the negative situation during the war.

Also, binationalists such as Henrietta Szold and Judah L. Magnes rejected the stand and broke off to establish their own party, Ichud ("Unification"), which advocated an Arab–Jewish federation.

[13] Goldman felt that the program was unduly weighted in favour of the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth and that focusing on that as a priority would hamper the efforts to rescue the European Jewry.

However, Abba Silver and Emanuel Neumann put forward that the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth should be the movement's primary aim.

Henceforth the Zionist movement would strive for unqualified Jewish independence in Palestine, for a state with recognized borders, republican institutions, and a sovereign Army, to be attained in cooperation with America.