Benjamin Browdy, who several months ago was named to fill the unexpired term of the late president of the Zionist Organization of America, Daniel Frisch, was today nominated overwhelmingly for a full term as head of the organization. (As the Bulletin went to press, the voting had not yet taken place, but it was a virtual certainty that Mr. Browdy would be the next president of the Z.O.A.)
Last night at the opening session of the four-day convention, Mr. Browdy outlined a four-point program aimed at increasing the role of the Z.O.A. and expanding its activities, and calling on the Organization to take the load in a campaign to democratize Jewish community life in this country. The major points of the program are:
1. The creation of a demission on policy to be named by the Z.O.A. president through which all policy questions are to be cleared before they come up for final decision before the duly authorized bodies of the Zionist organization.
2. The sending to Israel of a Zionist delegation of 50 outstanding American businessmen from various parts of the country to study the whole problem of private investment in Israel.
3. The establishment of a national chaluziuth commission to organize and supervise ZOA projects of planned chalutziuth.
4. The convening of a conference on democratization of the Jewish community to which are to be invited all Jewish groups within and without the Zionist movement J.T.A. News interested in extending American Jewish democracy.
The Z.O.A. president told the 2,000 delegates that “the issue of the control of Jewish communal life in America can no longer be postponed or sidestopped.” He charged that “in many communities, Jewish federation and welfare funds have arrogated to themselves the control over Jewish funds and have decreed allocations favoring the local institutions at the expense of the pressing and tragic needs of the Jewish homeland.” This is being done” he asserted, “at a time when the state of Israel after having admitted 400,000 Jews in the last two years, is struggling desperately to secure shelter, food and sources of livelihood for the 100,000 Jews now fleeing for their lives from Iraq and perhaps an additional 100,000 streaming out from curtained Rumania.”
Calling for the raising of the budget of the Z.O.A. from last year’s $1,200,000 to $2,000,000, Mr. Browdy said that “the Zionists of America are determined to obtain their full share from the Jewish public funds in the U.S.” and warned that if they did not, “we will organize a campaign of our own in order to raise the necessary sums from the American Jewish community.” Mr. Browdy proposed that the Z.O.A. hence-forth conduct Israel projects of its own instead of subsisting on the satisfaction of having aided everybody and providing assistance to all other groups in Zionism.”
The head of the Z.O.A. also urged the granting of a special status for the World Zionist Organization in Israel and endorsed the wholehearted cooperation of the World Zionist Organization with the Government of Israel on the principle of fair and equitable partnership. He reported that an American-Israel information service has been established. It is planned further to carry on an exchange program with Israel universities and American Jewish students and also to arrange for an interchange between Israel and the United States of outstanding leaders in the fields of science and the professions.
SILVER CHARGES ISRAEL GOVERNMENT REDUCES STATUS OF ZIONIST ORGANIZATION
Dr. Abba Hillol Silver, speaking tonight, charged the Israel Government with pursuing policies which reduce the status of the Zionist organization to such an extent that it leads many American Jews to “walk away” from the organization. The Zionist organization, he said, is in danger of becoming “the typical American ledge.”
“American Jews are beginning to walk away from an organization which periphally touches the essential task of today and tomorrow. They are losing interest in an organization which is prohibited from raising funds even for its own parties in Israel which other Zionist parties are permitted to do”, he continued. “The Government of Israel should make up its mind whether it really wants a strong Zionist organization to carry on for a considerable time in the future. If it does it will have to curb its own quite natural propensities towards centralization and deliborately replenish the power and authority of the Zionist organization.”
Louis Lipsky, chairman of the American Zionist Council, who presided at this afternoon’s session devoted to “The Z.O.A. on the American scene,” urged a radical renovation of Zionist policy by uniting Zionist groups of all parties in any given territory in one unified organization. While permitting the different parties a limited autonomy in their societies, the plan would join then in a larger body for practical purposes.
Mr. Lipsky warned that unless such unified territorial bodies are set up within the Jewish communities, “there will ensue a demoralization out of which will come the reduction in the influence and authority and productiveness of the Zionist organization to a level which may be tantamount to liquidation.
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.
