Avert Vienna Kehillah Split by Compromise of Zionists and Non-zionists

A split in the recently elected Kehillah Board of Vienna, over matters of representation and the program of work, was averted today by a re-constitution of the Board.

The split threatened for the past several weeks. The Zionist factions controlling thirteen votes, as against 17 votes of the representatives of the Union of Austrian Jews, non-Zionists, with other groups holding the balance of power, proceeded to an opposition policy. They demanded proportionate representation on the Board and the adoption of a program of work which would be in accord with their views of Jewish communal life. They also demanded a change in the election ordinance.

The Union representatives, as a result, issued an ultimatum to the Zionists and the groups affiliated with them, that they will consent to a reconstruction of the Board, it the Zionists will agree in advance to abandon their national democratic program in the Kehillah work and to desist from the demand for a change in the Kehillah elections until the end of the term. If these conditions would not be met, all Union representatives would resign and the election results would be contested, in which case a government commissioner would have to take charge of the affairs of the Kehillah until new elections were held.

This conflict in the Vienna Kehillah also threatened the progress of the work in Austria for the extension of the Jewish Agency. Two non-Zionist representatives to the Jewish Agency are to be chosen from this country.

Due to the agreement reached yesterday the Kehillah board was reconstituted. Herr Loewenherz, a Zionist, was chosen vice-president of the Board and the Zionist groups were given representation on the collegium and the various committees. Simultaneously a commission to inquire into the advisability of changes in the election ordinance was appointed.