Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, declared last night that Israel should end its questioning about Jewish communities abroad and accept them for what they are. Jewish communities outside Israel, he continued, have done more than their fair share.
Dr. Goldmann, who made his remarks at the opening session of the fourth European Zionist Conference since the end of World War II, was greeted by a tremendous ovation when he rose to speak. Sixteen hundred delegates, including contingents of Zionist youth groups, crowded into a vast auditorium to listen to Dr. Goldmann and other Zionist leaders.
The world Zionist leader said it was “wrong” for Zionists to continue posing to themselves the “tortuous” question: “To be or not to be.” It is a “fallacy,” he continued, to hold that with the establishment of the State of Israel-notwithstanding all its achievements and efforts-the Zionist movement has fulfilled its task.
The creation of the State of Israel was “but the creation of a Zionist instrument, not the attainment of the ultimate goal,” Dr. Goldmann pointed out. “The aim of Zionism has never been the establishment of a state, per se.”
The Vradar network” of the Zionist organization, Dr. Godlmann declared, is tuned to the in-gathering of the exiles and the salvation of the Jewish people, who cannot go anywhere else as free human beings and Jews. The “greatest glory” of the State of Israel, he insisted, was its absorption of 1,000,000 Jews. This process is far from complete, he cautioned, and it is expected that immigration during the second year of Israel’s history will be as great as during its first decade.
In addition to helping such Jews find their way back to freedom and a Jewish existence, Dr. Goldmann said, it was the task of the Zionist movement to mobilize the Jewish people for the absorption of new migratory wave, and to educate thousands of Jews from “compulsory to voluntary” immigration. He noted that while Jews throughout the world showed a willingness to support Jews in Israel, their attitude was quite different on the question of their migrating to Israel.
Zvi Lurie, head of the organization department of the Jewish Agency, which called the current conference, outlined the parley’s aims as: 1. To identify itself with the thousands of Jews pouring in, “on the high seas of Jewish history.” towards Israel; 2. To mobilize itself financially and morally to achieve their absorption in Israel in the most productive manner; 3. To ease the burden which lies on the shoulders of the Zionist movement and Israel; and, 4. To manifest Jewish and Zionist unity, a unity of action and creativity.
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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.
