Almogi Plans to Remain Chairman

Yosef Almogi, chairman of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency Executives, said today that he saw no reason why he should submit his resignation before the 29th World Zionist Congress convenes here in February, 1978. He said that the fact that a new government is taking office in Israel does not mean that the WZO chairman should “automatically” resign.

Almogi said, however, that he will not be a candidate for another term as chairman. Yitzhak Navon, chairman of the Zionist General Council, said that the Labor Party has not decided yet whether it will nominate a candidate to oppose the Likud candidate, almost certain to be Jewish Agency treasurer Leon Dulzin. Almogi and Navon addressed a press conference here on the eve of the General Council meeting that opens Wednesday. Almogi rejected an implication that he should resign at that meeting.

When asked whether he, as a Labor Party veteran, could continue to represent the WZO abroad, he said he saw no problem. He said he would ask Premier Menachem Begin to continue the machinery of cooperation and coordination between the Jewish Agency and the government as they existed under previous governments. He referred to the various joint Agency-government committees.

Begin is scheduled to address the Zionist General Council at a special session marking the 10th anniversary of Jerusalem’s re-unification. The Council will deal with political matters, aliya and absorption, budgetary, financial and funding problems and preparations for the Jewish Agency’s sixth annual General Assembly meeting here June 26-30.

AMERICANS IN MAJOR ROLE

Americans will play a leading role in the Assembly. The major address will be delivered by Max Fisher, of Detroit, chairman of the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors. Melvin Dubinsky, of St. Louis, will chair the budget review committee and Paul Zuckerman, of Detroit, will open the session on international fund-raising. That session will be addressed by Leonard Strelitz of Norfolk, Va., the newly elected general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal.

The United Israel Appeal has designated more than 100 individuals as members or member-alternates to the General Assembly meeting. In addition, scores of Federation committees and individuals will participate through their written comments on the II issues that will form the basis for Assembly deliberations. That innovation was suggested by the Planning Committee headed by Philip Granovsky, of Toronto with the participation of Raymond Epstein of Chicago and Robert Russell of Miami.

The issues include absorption and absorption centers in Israel; division of responsibilities between the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government; absorption problems of immigrant scientists; the problem of drop-outs; the role of immigrant associations in the absorption process; problems of immigration from “sensitive” areas of the world; and the enhancement of Jewish consciousness in the absorption process. (By Tuvia Mendelson)