Behind the Headlines Fisher Sees Agency Truly Representative of World Jewry

Max Fisher of Detroit, reelected chairman of the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors, said today that he was “more encouraged than ever” by the Agency’s General Assembly–its third since the Jewish Agency was reconstituted in 1970. The General Assembly ended Sunday. The reconstitution which Fisher and the late Louis Pincus first envisioned in 1964 and brought to reality six years later has worked remarkably well, Fisher said.

The Jewish Agency, he said, has become “the real representative body of world Jewry.” He said he had “never seen better working relationships than those that have developed between the World Zionist Organization and the so-called non-Zionists”–the representatives of the fund-raising bodies abroad who joined to form the reconstituted Jewish Agency.

But Fisher has set his sights on further expansion. He hinted as much in his closing speech Thursday night when he observed, “If we are–informally–a committee of the whole Jewish survival, then let us find ways to bring into our Agency those great and responsible Jewish bodies whose interest in survival is no less than ours…”

Sources close to Fisher said the reference was to such bodies as B’nai B’rith and the large American Conservative and Reform synagogue councils which have expressed interest in joining the Agency. In his speech, Fisher outlined what he called “an agenda for a decade”–guidelines for the Agency to follow in the coming years.

GUIDELINE: ‘AGENCY MEANS EXCELLENCE’

He summed up the first guideline in the slogan, “Agency means excellence.” He demanded that the Jewish Agency find “the best possible people, the ablest and most qualified in all its posts…the best man for the job.” He said that he saw “certain aspects of the Agency which must be better attuned to meet the needs of the future. The key to that future, the key to the Agency’s people and their assignments, must be measured by a single word: Excellence,” he said.

Observers took this as an oblique criticism of the party system that prevails in all top echelon Agency appointments and always has prevailed. According to the observers, Fisher was urging that ability replace party affiliation as the key to appointments and promotions and the functioning of the Agency.

Under his next heading, “Creative Klita,” (absorption) Fisher spoke forthrightly of the failure of the Agency (“whose failure? Not all ours–but surely ours in part,” he said) to narrow the social gaps and succeed in the in depth absorption of Afro-Asian newcomers. “…We brought people to development towns. We even remembered them–some of the time. We built schools, kindergartens and centers. But did we ever provide enough trained people for these institutions?” he asked.

“Jewish education means survival,” was Fisher’s next point. He reiterated his call-made at the last Assembly in Feb. 1973 for stepped-up Jewish education in the diaspora. “…And let us not be so short-sighted as to think that money spent on Jewish education conflicts with campaigning.” “Jews are a family,” was Fisher’s last point–and under this rubric he suggested visits by Agency leaders to small outlying communities. He said he himself planned such visit. Later, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he was leaving Israel for South Africa this week, and that he had subsequent invitations to Chile and to Australia which he hoped to take up in the future.

SEES GAINS IN AGENCY ‘OPENNESS’

Fisher admitted that he had heard of some complaints from overseas delegates to the Assembly against Israeli bureaucracy at the highest levels which tended, they felt, to thwart and foil efforts by the various Assembly members, experts in their various fields, to render advice and assistance to Israel. He could not, however, condone such complaints. On the contrary, he said, he believed Israel was on the verge of a breakthrough in this respect and anticipated a new willingness to consider and accept outside ideas as presented by Agency members or others.

It was “not correct,” he said, that advice or projects tendered by members of the Agency housing committee–most of its members are large-scale builders and construction experts–“got the brush-off” from the Housing Ministry in Israel. Red tape difficulties were common the world over, restrictions posed by building regulations and a multitude of overlapping authorities were not unique to Israel, and furthermore the recent changes in the Housing Ministry, with incumbents replacing each other in quick succession, had added to the delays, he said.

Citing examples of a greater openness to new ideas, Fisher recalled the Housing Ministry’s recently announced willingness to bring in Yugoslav materials and manpower to put up homes faster, its willingness to introduce trailers for immigrant absorption centers, and the businesslike approach of the new Minister, Avraham Ofer.