Delegates to Zionist Congress Debate Whether Goldmann Should Stay As President

The question of whether Dr. Nahum Goldmann should continue as president of the World Zionist Organization is a cardinal issue in behind the scenes meetings at the World Zionist Congress here. When the Congress’ standing committee held its first session today, the Confederation of General Zionists, headed by Dr. Israel Goldstein and Mrs. Rose L. Halprin, of New York, announced that it would not enter the new Jewish Agency Executive unless Dr. Goldmann continued as WZO president.

Dr. Goldmann, who announced several months ago that he did not intend to stand for re-election, was nevertheless also supported by the Mapam, Liberal and Mizrachi factions. But the Labor Zionist faction, which accounts for about 40 percent of the Congress delegates, said pointedly that it “had noted” Dr. Goldmann’s statement that he does not intend to be a candidate for another term as president. The Union of General Zionists, headed by Dr. Emanuel Neumann, of New York, has given its members a free hand to vote as they please. Dr. Neumann said, in the course of a debate today, that he thought the attacks on Dr. Goldmann for some of his political statements had been unfair and exaggerated. But he disputed Dr. Goldmann’s view that a Zionist leader may express his own political opinions with complete freedom. Dr. Neumann stressed that he did not aspire to the office of WZO president.

The wrangle over the future presidency is not concerned with personalities but rather with the question of whether the office itself should be retained or abolished. No alternate candidate to Dr. Goldmann has been officially proposed by any faction. The Labor Zionists want to leave the post vacant. But other parties object on the grounds that it would transfer the powers and influence of the presidency to the chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive, Aryeh L. Pincus, who represents the Labor faction.

In the debate over aliyah (immigration) today, Jacob Hazan, of the left-wing Mapam Party, disputed the implication by some leaders of the Orthodox Mizrachi faction that religious motives were the main force behind aliyah. Mr. Hazan said that the majority of immigrants had come from socialist organizations and combined the vision of social justice with that of national rebirth.

YOUTH ORGANIZATIONS EXPECTED TO BE ADMITTED INTO ZIONIST MOVEMENT

The World Zionist Congress was expected to make Zionist history today by accepting non-affiliated Jewish youth organizations into full membership in the Zionist movement. The recommendation to admit the youth organizations, mainly student groups, was made by the Congress presidium and was virtually certain to be approved by the steering committee. The ease with which the youngsters won recognition, without the fight they had been prepared to wage, has encouraged them to make further demands and to press vigorously for a program that would drastically alter the structure of the World Zionist Organization.

The youth groups are represented at the Congress by 11 Jewish students from the United States, Britain, France, Sweden, South Africa and Australia and six Israelis, all of the World Jewish Students Organization. Some of their demands, which reportedly include a seat on the WZO Executive, coupled with exuberant demonstrations outside the Congress Hall and a shower of pamphlets and posters within, have rankled some old timers.

The basic student demand was summed up in slogans painted on cars which they drove in a demonstration outside the Congress Hall: “Away With the Old” and “Give Zionism A Younger Image.” Specifically they are asking for abolition of the party system in the Zionist organization; the appointment of experts, rather than party nominees, to high WZO posts; and the expansion of the Zionist framework to include bodies not affiliated with Israeli political parties. Michael Hunter, spokesman for the International Union of Jewish Students, which claims to have chapters on campuses in 30 countries, warned on the Congress floor yesterday that the party system must be abolished, “otherwise our first appearance here may be our last.”