Authorize Commission to Study and Plan Future Activities of the Z.O.A.

A commission of nine, to be appointed by the Chairman of the Executive Committee, to study the future functions of the Zionist Organization of America, as a result of developments incidental to the establishment of the Jewish Agency, was decided upon unanimously at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Zionist Organization held all day Sunday at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York.

The Committee will be charged with making a study of the present situation and will be called upon to present a plan of conduct for the Zionist Organization as well as its views on what should be the future functions of the World Zionist Organization. The same meeting selected Detroit as the seat for the thirty-second annual convention of the Zionist Organization, which will open on June 30th.

Discussing the election of delegates to the World Zionist Congress to be held in Zurich, Switzerland, beginning July 28th, it was decided that the Zionist Organization would officially sponsor a single list of candidates to be presented to the entire country. All candidates for delegates on the Zionist Organization ticket will be pledged to the support of the Jewish Agency. Explaining the rules of procedure regarding the election of delegates, Louis Lipsky, president of the Zionist Organization, pointed out that the official Zionist list would not prevent groups of one hundred shekel payers, who are members of the Z. O. A. from submitting their own list of delegates for election.

Dr. Nahum Sokolow, chairman of the World Zionist Executive, was the guest of honor at the sessions. Dr. Sokolow related his experiences with various governments in the cause of Zion.

Addresses were also delivered by Elihu D. Stone, chairman of the Executive Committee; Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan, chairman of the Administrative Committee of the Zionist Organization; A. I. Leibovitz, chairman of the Finance Committee of the Zionist Organization, (Continued on Page 4)

and Dr. I. M. Rubinow, executive director of the Zionist Organization.

In his address, Dr. Kaplan deplored the “persistent silence” of those non-Zionists who had so emphatically given their approval to the Jewish Agency agreement in October, referring in particular to the silence of the Conference of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations on the subject of the Jewish Agency.

A report rendered by Mr. Leibovitz showed a substantial reduction in the deficit of the Zionist Organization, and an improved condition of Zionist finances generally. Dr. Rubinow announced that the Zionist membership during the period ending with March 1st was greater than for the similar period last year. This was ascribed to a recent six weeks’ tour made by Louis Lipsky, president of the Zionist Organization of America, and others.

The Executive Committee also decided after much discussion to send ten delegates to represent the Zionist Organization of America as such at the convention of the American Jewish Congress to be held in Atlantic City on March 31st.

Emanuel Neumann, president of the Jewish National Fund, announced that the Jewish National Fund had decided to plant a forest in Palestine dedicated to Professor Albert Einstein, on the occasion of his fiftieth anniversary. A campaign will be launched for inscriptions in the Golden Book of the Jewish National Fund, each inscription representing $100. The book containing the names of those who have subscribed to this project will be presented to Professor Einstein, either at the next Zionist Congress, or at the first meeting of the extended Jewish Agency.

A resolution was unanimously adopted providing for the sending of a message by the Zionists of America to Professor Einstein, congratulating him on his fiftieth birthday, which occurs on March 14th.

The Executive endorsed the publication of a special issue of the “New Palestine” to mark the 25th anniversary of the death of Theodor Herzl.