Max Fisher Calls for End to Party Structure in Wzo, Says It Interferes with “effective Functioning”

In a series of hard-hitting speeches here last week and an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the veteran American Jewish leader Max Fisher of Detroit, called on the World Zionist Organization to overhaul its structure which is based on political parties. Fisher, who is chairman of the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors, attended the Agency’s annual Assembly here and also addressed the meeting of the Zionist General Council which preceded it.

Fisher claimed that the party system is an anachronism which has repeatedly proven detrimental to the Jewish Agency. “We have seen how party politics can interfere with the effective functioning of the WZO and the Jewish Agency,” Fisher said in a speech to the Council. Leon Dulzin, chairman of the WZO and Jewish Agency Executives, proposed a “retreat” next felt where all of the 62 members of the Agency’s Board of Governors would study the issue in depth. Fisher said he was encouraged by that response.

SAYS POLITICS EXCLUDE MEN OF “EXCELLENCE”

The Jewish Agency was reconstituted in 1970 under Fisher and the late Louis Pincus. Its Executive is divided evenly between WZO representatives and representatives of the United Jewish Appeal and the United Israel Appeal. The Board of Governors is similarly divided, but the Agency Executive has a slight preponderance of WZO people and, most important, its departments are headed by WZO party nominees.

In his speech to the Council, Fisher spoke of “good men — men of high qualifications and excellence” who are excluded from key posts “because they are from the wrong party.”

In an interview with the JTA, Fisher recalled the tough battles he and other UJA leaders had with the WZO establishment over the years on key appointments. Most recently, he and his close colleagues of the UJA vetoed two nominees of Premier Menachem Begin for the office of WZO Treasurer — Rafael Katlowitz and Yoram Aridor. They held out for the appointment of Laborite Akiva Levinsky who, according to all accounts, has been a marked success in that post.

Similarly, Fisher disclosed that it was at his insistence that certain ranking Jewish Agency officials — among them Aliya Department director Yehuda Dominitz — retained their posts despite the wishes of the chairmen of their departments to replace them with political appointees. “I’m not so naive as to think you can sweep away 50 years of Zionist politics overnight,” Fisher fold the JTA. Overall, however, he said he was gratified by what has been achieved during the past ten years, since the Agency was reconstituted. He spoke of streamlining, efficiency and depolitization. Politics, he noted, is the art of the possible.

THERE ARE NO “NON-ZIONISTS.” IN AGENCY

“But the time has come to take a leap for ward” to reduce the influence of the political party structure in Zionist affairs, he said. He has consistently played down the traditional differentiation between “Zionists” and “non-Zionists” within the Jewish Agency. “There are no non-Zionists in the Jewish Agency,” he said in his speech to the General Council. He explained that all the so-called “non-Zionists” believe equally with the Zionists in Jewish survival, in maintaining the Jewish heritage and in the centrality of Israel in Jewish life. Moreover, he said, the Jewish national and communal organizations in the diaspora, especially in North America, are engaged in “Zionist” work — building up young leadership, reaching out to the campuses, expanding Jewish education, and fostering aliya from the West — tasks also engaged in by the WZO.

Fisher observed in that connection that the anachronistic division between “Zionists” and “non-Zionists” made for “duplicated efforts, wasted opportunities and frequently the inability of one group to make use of the resources possessed by the other.” According to Fisher, the so-called “non-Zionists” are really “new Zionists” and their work and efforts should be properly coordinated with those of the WZO.

IN ACCORD WITH DULZIN

But party politics within the WZO sometimes seems to overshadow the actual Zionist goals of the organization and stand in the way of such coordination, Fisher said. “They sometimes put their party affiliation before the ideology they make speeches about,” he told the JTA.

Fisher said he seems to have struck a responsive chord with Dulzin and therefore was hopeful that there would be progress toward a reassessment of the WZO structure. He said the “retreat” proposed by Dulzin could become a point of no return from which the participants would emerge committed to overhaul the WZO’s antiquated party structure.

In his speech to the Council, Fisher passed these questions: “Does the present structure and political base of the WZO reflect the realities of present day Jewish life in the diaspora? Does this political base and structure operate against the WZO in implementing its programs in the free Jewish communities? Is it not time for a change?”

He added, “May I suggest that you give urgent consideration to restructuring and transforming the WZO in such a way that it does reflect present day Jewish realities.