During the Jewish insurgency in Palestine , a campaign against the British by Jewish underground groups in Palestine ( the Haganah , Irgun , and Lehi ) , the AJC opposed what it viewed as Jewish terrorism . Following the King David Hotel bombing , it issued a statement calling for American Jews to " repudiate the perpetrators of those outrages and those leaders of Jews , in and out of Palestine , whose incitement is equally responsible . " In a statement , Lessing Rosenwald called for the American Jewish community to condition any further assistance to the Yishuv ( Palestinian Jewry ) on the end of violence . It also opposed the Haganah 's Aliyah Bet program , which attempted to bring Jewish refugees into Palestine illegally past a British blockade . Following a statement by the Vice-President of the Zionist Organization of America that American Jews were prepared to spend millions to finance illegal immigration to Palestine , Rosenwald repudiated him , calling Aliyah Bet a " shocking disregard for law and order " and stating " lawlessness even in the name of mercy can not be tolerated . " In the final year before the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 , the Council became very close to San Francisco born rabbi Judah Magnes , humanitarian and founder of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the leading Palestinian-Jewish advocate for a binational state , who was forced to return to the United States . In 1948 , the AJC had 14,000 members
King David Hotel bombing
King David Hotel bombing
American Council for Judaism