Defects in the quality of life in Israel should be no deterrent for free immigration from the West, Yosef Almogi; chairman of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency Executives, told British Jews. Addressing an Israel Independence Day session of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Almogi said the function of a voluntary Zionist aliya was to settle in Israel “in full awareness of the realities.” Recent events in Israel were “evidence of the fundamental soundness of a democracy living under the rule of the law,” he stated.
During his three-day visit, Almogi also addressed the Joint Israel Appeal and the Zionist Federation. He told the ZF’s honorary officers that the WZO Executive fully supported the formation in Britain of a national council for aliya and voluntary work.
While the Zionists must provide the backbone and the WZO emissaries must process prospective immigrants, the new intensified campaign must embrace all Anglo-Jewish organizations, he said. Last year, Israel had received 20,000 new immigrants, o. whom 7000 were from the Soviet Union.
Almogi also told the ZF that the next Zionist Congress, planned for February, 1978, must be preceded by a forceful membership drive. The WZO wished to settle the distribution of executive posts between affiliated movements before the Congress, thus enabling it to devote its time “to more fundamental matters,” he said.
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