The National Administrative Council of the Zionist Organization of America, at a two-day conference here this week-end, adopted a program of projects in this country and Israel which will entail a budget of $1, 750,00.O00 Of this sum, $700, 000 will be needed for the American portion of the program.
The program calls for the establishment in Israel of ten trade schools and an American business college, in addition to the recruitment in this country of technically-trained chalutzim who will bring to the Jewish state much needed professional and mechanical skills and teachers to train Israelis in many vocations. It was also announced that the Z. O. A. will send an additional 20,000 individual food packages to families in immigrant work villages, and that each package will be sent to a specific family whose name has been chosen by a Z.O.A. -member donor.
On the American scene, the new Z.O.A. program calls upon Zionists to participate actively in welfare funds and community councils, and urges tans democratization of the American Jewish community by bringing Jewish welfare funds within the administrative framework of local community councils with a wide, democratic composition. Other major features of the program call for reorganization of Z.O.A. youth activities to elicit greater response of Jewish youth to the Zionist program and for the organization to provide greater educational, publication and sports activity within its structure.
Benjamin Browdy, Z.O.A. president, commenting on the announcement last week of the institution of a policy of selective immigration to Israel, warned that this was the sounding of an alarm of a grave crisis in the Jewish state. Characterizing the move as “long overdue, ” Mr. Browdy pointed cut that the selective policy will guarantee that newcomers to Israel will constitute a productive group capable of taking care of itself, He stressed that the selective policy will not effect the immigration of Jewish communities in danger or threatened by danger.
The Z.O.A. president criticized the American Jewish Congress for claiming to represent all Zionist organizations at its recent convention where it adopted a resolution criticizing President Truman’s appointment of an ambassador to the Vatican and asking him to reconsider the step. Mr. Browdy asserted that “the Zionist Organization of America, and I dare say the Zionist movement in the United States, has no quark with President Truman. ” He referred to the American Jewish Congress’ handling of the affair “as a piece of headline hunting” and asked it to speak exclusively in its own name.
Mortimer May, chairman of the Z. O. A. executive committee, charged American Jews with neglecting the promotion of private enterprise in Israel. Urging the Z.O.A. to strengthen the position of the Palestine Economic Corporation, Mr. May declared that “if Israel is to prosper it will have to be through large-scale investments of private capital combined with managerial know-how, supplemented by the best in technology.” He also asked the organization to spur religious interest in Israel by Providing General Zionist enterprises there with chapels and synagogues.
Abraham A. Redelheim, chairman of the Administrative Council, who presided, and Louis Lipsky, chairman of the American Zionist Council, were among the featured speakers at the meeting. The conference adopted a resolution felicitating Mr. Lipsky upon his 75th birthday.
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.
