The Canadian Zionist Federation has dissociated itself from the Zionist Organization of Canada’s three-man committee that held hearings in Jerusalem last week on the problems of Canadian olim in Israel.
Yosef Almogi, chairman of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency Executives made public today a cable from Philip G. Givens, president of the Canadian Zionist Federation, in which he stressed that the CZF had not authorized the inquiry and expressed regret that the ZOC had acted without prior consultation with the Federation or the Jewish Agency.
Almogi said Givens’ message confirmed the fact that the ZOC was not representative of the CZF and thereby supported the grounds on which the Jewish Agency had refused an invitation to participate in the inquiry or send observers to it.
The ZOC panel, headed by Gerald N.F. Charness of Montreal, heard testimony from some Canadians who complained about bureaucratic red tape but were generally positive about life in Israel and said they had no intention to return to Canada. Charness had said at the outset that the inquiry was held because many Canadian olim had complained that Canadian Jewry was not showing sufficient interest in their problems.
Givens’ cable to Almogi stated that the CZF “did not authorize nor endorse the establishment of the commission of inequity with responded Canadian olim by the Zionist Organization of Canada.”
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