Israel’s political parties have agreed to apportion the country’s delegates to the forthcoming World Zionist Congress according to the results of last November’s elections to the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, it was reported here today by Zvi Lurie, director of the organization department of the Jewish Agency.
Mr. Lurie told a press conference here that the Congress, which opens here on December 27, will be the first to represent a majority of the Jewish people. Some 500 delegates from 43 countries are expected to attend. Jewish communities in 34 of the countries will be represented by delegates who were elected or named by agreement, while Jews in nine other countries will be represented by associate members with no voting rights, Mr. Lurie said.
The executive added that several communities and organizations will be represented by fraternal delegates on whose voting rights the Actions Committee will have to decide. Such delegates will include those representing Young Israel in the United States, and the Scandinavian and Italian Jewish communities.
Special status will be given to the Board of Deputies of British Jews, to be represented for the first time at a Zionist congress, and to the representative body of French Jewry, Mr. Lurie declared. He said no agreement has yet been reached with any American organization other than young Israel.
The Jewish Agency official said that the forthcoming Congress will have to discuss the question of activating and securing the cooperation of community organizations, especially with regard to the problems of Jewish education. He said he would bring before the Congress a detailed four-year plan that would include 50 percent of the world’s Jewish children in the Jewish education system, as compared with the 20 percent now participating.
(From Rome it was reported today that the Council of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities has approved unanimously a resolution to join the World Zionist Organization as a fraternal member.)
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