The Zionist Actions Committee. which opened its session here last night with a dramatic call by World Zionist Organization president Dr. Nahum Goldmann for a basic change in the relationship between Israel and Jewish communities abroad, began today a two-day general debate
There was agreement among most of the speakers today that new life must be infused into the Zionist movement in order to revive a Jewish consciousness in communities in the Western countries. It was generally agreed that such consciousness must be instilled in the youth and that it can best be done by having young people spend some time living in Israel.
President Itzhak Ben Zvi of Israel, who spoke on “Sixty Years of Zionism, ” paid tribute to the aid given the Jewish State by Jews throughout the world. He singled out for special praise the largest Jewish community of the world, the American. The President insisted that the Zionist movement had not yet completed its mission that on the contrary with the establishment of the State of Israel the Zionist movement’s responsibilities to world Jewry and to Israel have increased.
Joseph Sprinzak, chairman of the Actions Committee and Speaker of the Israel Parliament, charged that since the establishment of the State of Israel “the Zionist movement has not justified its existence. ” Of the movements two tasks–establishment of a Jewish State and preparation of the Jewish people to return to Zion-the first was accomplished ten years ago, but the Zionist movement has failed to make real headway in its second mission, he insisted. “A whole generation of Jews is being brought up without Jewish consciousness, let alone Zionist consciousness, ” he charged.
A Jewish Agency budget submitted to the meeting today called for an expenditure of 211, 000, 000 pounds in the next fiscal year. Avraham Harman, member of the Agency executive, revealed that 120, 000. 000 pounds had been spent in the last six months of the current fiscal year.
Mr, Harman reported on the initiation of discussions between the Agency and representatives of non-Zionist American Jewish organizations for the setting up of an advisory council to the Agency. The organizations invited to participate in the advisory body are already engaged in work in behalf of Israel, though they are not Zionist in character, he said.
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.
