Dulzin Says Jewish Schools in Latin America Need Trained Teachers

The major problem of Jewish schools in South American countries is lack of professional teachers of Jewish subjects, Leon Dulzin, chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization executives, said on a visit here on his return from a conference in Caracas, Venezuela. He promised “we will do our utmost to obtain competent Israeli teachers for them.”

He met at the two-day Caracas meeting with leaders of Zionist organizations and Jewish communities of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador and Peru. He reported that Latin American Jewry “is fully cognizant of the crucial importance of Jewish education and aliya for creative Jewish survival,” the primary topics of the meeting.

He said Jewish communities of all of the seven countries have Jewish schools which are attended by 70 to 80 percent of their Jewish children. He described the “Senior High School Year in Israel” program in Peru in which the Jewish day school’s graduating class participated with “enthusiastic success,” adding that Mexican Jewry had adopted such a program and the Jews of Venezuela will start it this year.

Venezuela Jewry has just built a modern Zionist center in Caracas to accomodate all Zionist activities, including offices for the Unted Israel Appeal and the Jewish National Fund. In Caracas, Dulzin opened Venezuelan Jewry’s JNF campaign which he said was one of the best in the diaspora.

NEW GENERATION COMMITTED TO ISRAEL

He said that though Latin American Jewry is beset by severe economic problems, the new generation of Jewish leadership is of a high quality which intends to fulfil its commitment to Israel. He reported that “your children cannot be accepted in Venezuela’s first rate Jewish school unless you have fulfilled your obligation to Keren Hayesod.”

He announced that the United States “Think Tank” will study reorganization of the world Zionist movement September 16-18. The think tank is made up of one representative of each Zionist organization and a number of intellectuals and academics, among them the presidents of three religious institutions, Gerson Cohen, chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Dr. Alfred Gottsschalk, president of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish institute of Religion; and Dr. Norman Lamm, president of Yeshiva University; and Prof. David Sidorsky, Saul Cohen, president of Queens College, Prof. David Landis, Prof. Howard Adelson and Eliezer Lipsky.

In New York, Dulzin met with the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, with Max Fisher and Jerold Hoffberger, and Gerald Kraft, president of B’nai B’rith; Alleck Resnick, president of the Zionist Organization of America; Martin Citrin, president of the Council of Jewish Federations; Morris Abram, chairman of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry; and Martin Mandell, chairman of the Jewish Agency’s education committee.