Dulzin Says Argentine Jewish Community in Grave Danger: Jewish Leadership is Ineffective

The Jewish Agency’s acting chairman Leon Dulzin claimed today that Argentina’s 400,000 strong Jewish community is in grave danger but does not want to be rescued. By rescue, Dulzin meant aliya, but according to him, there has been a de-Zionization among Argentine Jews for whom Israel is no longer an attraction. He blamed the situation on leftist trends among Jewish youth in that country and on what he alleged was an ineffective and unrepresentative Jewish leadership there.

Dulzin spoke at a meeting of the World Federation of Jewish Journalists at Beth Sokolow here. He visited Argentina last month at the urgent summons of Jewish community leaders there to help stave off a strike by Hebrew school teachers. But Dulzin, who is also Jewish Agency treasurer, criticized the Argentine Jewish leadership which he branded unworthy of so large a Jewish community. This leadership, he said, was not representative of the entire Jewish community. Students, intellectuals and Jewish club were not represented in the leadership which Dulzin said consists of political functionaries who divide the posts among themselves.

Dulzin was angry because, as he claimed, the Jewish Agency made preliminary plans to rescue Argentine Jewry but the plans were rejected by the Jewish community’s leaders. He predicted dire consequences. The political situation in Argentina is very unstable, he said, and expressed belief that a military coup would take place in that country very soon, which would pose a serious threat to the financial and social position of most Jews in that country.

LEFTIST TRENDS AFFECT SHLICHIM

Dulzin observed that there are 40,000 Argentine Jewish immigrants in Israel and the rate of return among them is next to nil. But he conceded that aliya is no longer significant in Argentina. He said the leftist trends among Jewish youth there sometimes affects even the shlichim (emissaries) from Israel.

He claimed that he found a leaflet with the letterhead of the Argentine Zionist Federation describing the PLO’s plan for a secular Palestinian state to replace Israel. He also claimed that some Jewish youth in Argentina participate in pro-Arab and pro-PLO meetings and campaigns. He said he would raise this matter with Jewish Agency and government officials.

Maariv quoted Dulzin today as charging “Mapamization” of Zionist propaganda efforts on the grounds that the World Zionist Organization’s information department is headed by Avraham Shenker of Mapam. Dulzin is a leader of the right-wing Likud.