The recent reorganization in the Jewish Agency system of the disbursement of funds which are raised in the United States for work in Israel offers the Zionist movement in this country “a great opportunity now to come into its own,” Dr. Abba Hillel Silver declared here tonight at a Zionist Organization dinner at the Essex House.
“The Jewish Agency must now, in view of what has happened here, become increasingly a body charged, almost exclusively, with fiscal tasks and responsibilities.” Dr. Silver declared. “In a real sense, it must become a Joint Distribution Committee for Israel. All other functions must now revert back to where they legitimately belong, to where they have belonged ever since its inception–the Zionist Movement.
“I am referring to such vital activities as education, the dissemination of Hebrew culture, the revival of interest in the Hebrew language and literature, an active propaganda among Jews and non-Jews to maintain a favorable climate of public opinion for the young state, and whatever action will be found necessary from time to time and whatever mobilization of forces to defend the political security of the State of Israel.
“I am thinking of programs for increasing the channels of communication between Israel and the Jews throughout the world. I am also thinking of the historic function of the movement which was to give positive direction and leadership to all the constructive forces within the Jewish community everywhere.
“The free the Zionist movement will become, the more successful it will be in the performance of these vital tasks which will continue for generations to come, many of them indefinitely,” Dr. Silver stressed. “The movement will now be able to rally to it all those forces which are completely committed to its program. It will not have to make concessions to other groups who are not prepared to go along with it on its total program in the fond hope that they will then go along with it on a limited economic program for the benefit of Israel, It will no longer be found necessary, it never really was–to sacrifice the organization and the movement to the interest of fund-raising strategies.”
The American Zionist leader emphasized that the opportunity now created for the Zionist movement “to come into its own” is predicated upon the “wholehearted support” of the Government of Israel and its people. There must be an end to the deliberate devaluation of the Zionist movement on the part of those who today speak for the State of Israel. All definition-mongering and the favorite pastime of separating the so-called sheep from the goats, those who settle in Israel, and those who do not, must cease. The World Zionist Movement must be given the prestige and the authority without which it cannot function or can function only partially and haltingly,” D. Silver stated,
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