Drastic reorganization of the Joint Foreign Committee, comprising representatives of the Anglo-Jewish Association and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, was unanimously recommended today by a committee of enquiry.
The proposed reorganization entails the following:
1.–Reduction of the Committee’s membership from nineteen to nine, with power to coopt three additional members;
2.–Empowering the Committee to act as the central authority in behalf of the Board in all Jewish foreign affairs, with full authority over policy, the Committee to issue reports of activity on broad general lines, giving where advisable a clear indication of policy;
3.–The agreement with the Anglo-Jewish Association to be amended to provide for the above.
In presenting its recommendations, the committee of enquiry emphasized its view that the Joint Foreign Committee at the present time is overly large, while the basis of near equality between the Board and the Anglo-Jewish Association is no longer compatible with the Board’s status.
The report declared that in recent years a system had arisen whereby complete control and authority was assumed by the joint chairmen of the Committee while the Committee to all intents and purposes ceased to function.
It criticized the “prevailing practice” of the joint chairmen in treating all communications with Jewish bodies in other countries and with governments as confidential and not to be divulged to the members of the Committee.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
