After a tense debate lasting into the early hours of the morning, the 25th biennial South African Zionist Conference decided here early today, by a vote of 185 against 63, to amend the South African Zionist Federation’s constitution to prohibit separate campaigns for party funds by any group in the Federation. A breach of the new regulation, according to the decision, would be punishable by suspension or expulsion of the offending party.
The decision formalizes a gentlemen’s agreement in existence since 1948, whereby the Zionist Federation had agreed to allocate funds to each party from the biennial United Israel Appeal on condition that the parties refrain from separate campaigns. In spite of that gentlemen’s agreement, however, it was charged that the Zionist Revisionists here continued to conduct their own fund drives through visits of Heruth leaders from Israel.
After the constitutional amendment had been adopted, a personal assurance was given to the Revisionist delegates by Israel Dunsky, president of the South African Zionist Federation. Appealing for Federation unity, he pledged personally that he would do his utmost to help the Revisionists obtain an adjustment of any legitimate grievance within the Zionist movement, whether the grievance was against the South African movement or against the Jewish Agency for Palestine. He pleaded with the Revisionists to accept the “overwhelming decision” of the Conference.
The conference, which is being attended by Zionist leaders from all parts of South Africa and Rhodesia, was addressed, in addition to Mr. Dunsky, by Itzhak Bavly, Israel’s Minister to South Africa, and M. Maisels, president of the South African Board of Jewish Deputies. The latter emphasized the “full mutual understanding and cooperation between the Zionist Federation and the Board of Deputies.”
In his keynote address, Mr. Dunsky reviewed the world Jewish scene, and the problems facing Zionism today. He stressed the clarification of the Zionist mission by the recent World Zionist Congress, which had characterized that mission as one of ensuring Jewish survival in the widest sense, on two fronts–both in Israel and in other lands.
Turning to local problems, the Zionist leader described South African Zionism’s goals as twofold–utmost support for Israel, and the maintenance of united organized communal existence in South Africa, “Above all,” he added, “we are concerned with the problem of Hebrew education, which is vital to Jewish survival.” He also stressed the importance of the Zionist Federation’s efforts to stimulate greater emigration to Israel from South Africa.
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.
