Dr. Neumann Stresses Significance of W.Z.O. Actions Committee Session

“The forthcoming annual session of the Actions Committee of the World Zionist Organization, which opens in Jerusalem on March 14, will be of special significance,” Dr. Emanuel Neumann, chairman of the Jewish Agency-American Section, declared today on the eve of his departure for Israel. “This will be the first session of the Actions Committee since Levi Eshkol became Prime Minister.

“Since his accession, Premier Eshkol has given repeated expression to his deep interest in the World Zionist Organization and the problems and tasks which confront it both in Israel and in the Diaspora,” Dr. Neumann pointed out. “The Prime Minister has done so most emphatically in his highly significant utterance at the recent meeting of the Central Committee of Mapai. This augurs well for the future and fore-shadows a new chapter in the relationship between the Movement and the Government of Israel. The Prime Minister’s utterance on this subject is also most timely in view of the fact that the role of the Zionist movement in the Diaspora will be a major theme in the deliberations of this session of the Actions Committee.”

Dr. Neumann also expressed his “profound satisfaction” with the large measure of agreement and unity achieved by the American Jewish community in dealing with the urgent problem of Soviet Jewry. He paid special tribute to the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, as well as to the Synagogue Council of America and the American Jewish Committee for reaching unanimous agreement regarding the convening of a National Conference on Soviet Jewry, sponsored by twenty-four national organizations.

“American Jewry has thus shown a gratifying capacity for united action on a particular problem of prime importance to the Jewish people. It is to be hoped that if this trend is nurtured and strengthened it will lead to a more far reaching integration of the American Jewish community,” said Dr. Neumann.