Two more Zionist organizations have called on the Zionist Organization of America to reconsider its withdrawal from the American Zionist Federation. Americans for Progressive Israel-Hashomer Hatzair, voicing its “concern for a vigorous and creative AZF,” said the ZOA defection was “a further weakening of the AZF.”
In a statement, API-HH said that for the AZF to succeed as “a vibrant and creative Zionist movement,” it “must be an organization of ideas and ideologies that reflect the full spectrum of American Zionist life.” The ZOA withdrawal, it continued, “diminishes this possibility and impoverishes the Federation itself and all Zionists” and prevents the AZF from being “a source of inspiration, courage and strength to American Jewry and to Israel.”
Bnai Zion, the American Fraternal Zionist Organization, adopted a resolution calling the ZOA action “tantamount to disenfranchisement of many loyal and devoted Zionist members from the world Zionist movement.” Asking the ZOA to “reconsider this decision,” Bnai Zion declared: “We support and have full confidence in the AZF, its leadership and its programs which are gaining ever wider recognition in the American Jewish community.” The resolution noted that the AZF was created “after a long struggle to establish a meaningful and effective unified American Zionist front, which effort Bnai Zion wholeheartedly and actively supported.”
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.
