Sapir Backs Sacher Against Criticism by Emissaries

Jewish Agency Executive chairman Pinhas Sapir today strongly backed Michael Sacher, chairman of Britain’s Joint Israel Appeal and a member of the Jewish Agency Board of Governors against criticism by Jewish Agency emissaries in London. In a statement here, Sapir angrily rejected the emissaries’ charges of “bossism” and “hegemony of the rich” over their activities in Britain. Those complaints were contained in a cable to Sapir yesterday which was published in some local newspapers.

The emissaries objected to economy measures recommended in a recent report by a committee headed by Sacher which suggested outs to meet the Agency’s budget difficulties. One of the outs was in the number of Israeli emissaries promoting aliya in Britain. The chief aliya emissary in Britain, Yitzhak Meyer, announced his resignation yesterday. Sapir, who heads the Agency’s aliya department; said Meyer had been asked to complete his two-year term and that it was his, Sapir’s decision not to extend it for a third year. Sapir noted that Sacher has devoted “tens of years of energetic activity to the Zionist cause” and “anyone who knows him and knows his work,” he told the emissaries “knows the inaccuracy of your terminology.”