Agreement on Reconstituted Jewish Agency Signed; Pincus Stresses Rescue of Jews

The agreement on the reconstitution of the Jewish Agency–with half the Executive to be composed of non-Zionists–was signed here today. The founding assembly of the enlarged Agency began at the Convention Center tonight. In his keynote speech, Agency chairman Louis A. Pincus declared that “the first and foremost of the tasks that confront us is the rescue of Jews from countries of distress.” He added that “the rescue of those Jews who are left in the Arab countries is literally a matter of life and death.” The Agency’s work in absorbing immigrants has had “magnificent” results, Pincus said, and their arrival is “a great blessing for Israel.” But now, he said, “things have reached the danger point,” and what is required is “thought, pioneering, experiment and above all love of Israel, pure and simple.” Not to be forgotten, he noted, is “the heroic struggle of the Soviet Jews for the right to immigrate to Israel,” which must be “the concern of every Jew and every free man wherever he be.”

Pincus asserted in his keynote address that the Jewish Agency bears “the direct burden of responsibility with all it implies,” and that “If, God forbid, the funds we raise fall short of needs, it will be you who make the agonizing decision as to which vital service will be cut.” The chairman concluded: “We are entering into this partnership at a time when no signs of peace are discernible…when Russia is deepening her influence and involvement in the region…Let us prove worthy of the responsibility that history has imposed upon us.” In a related development, Dr. Israel Goldstein formally stepped down last night after 10 years as world chairman of the Keren Hayesod, the United Israel Appeal. Dr. Goldstein, who was 75 last Friday, is succeeded by Ezra Z. Shapiro, 68, a lawyer and communal leader of Cleveland, O., who will relocate in Israel. Rabbi Israel Miller, president of the American Zionist Federation, was nominated to the Jewish Agency Executive.