Barbarash Says U.S. Jews, Unlike British Jews, Lack Dynamic Leadership

Ernest Barbarash, English columnist of The Day-Jewish Journal in New York, here on a visit in connection with research work for an American publishing house, stated today that “American Jewry at present lacks dynamic leadership.” In contrast to this, said Mr. Barbarash, was the impressive fact that British Jews have a fully representative body – the Board of Deputies speaking for all of them. Mr. Barbarash, who is the former editor of The American Zionist, stated that American Jewry was in great need of restructuring and crying out for a representative body “on the lines of the Board of Deputies but attuned to the American conditions.” He observed that “despite President Nixon’s friendly relations with Mrs. Golda Meir (Israel’s Prime Minister) and other Israeli leaders, no Jewish representative group or delegation has been received by the President since his election two years ago. This may not be entirely due to his unwillingness to receive a Jewish delegation,” declared Mr. Barbarash. Finally, Mr. Barbarash said that wherever there was a Jewish assertiveness or militancy within American Jewry, one found the Orthodox branch in the forefront.