Fifteenth Zionist Congress Approves Jewish Agency Plan Sponsored by Weizmann

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The plan for forming the Jewish Agency, sponsored by the American Zionist and having the support of non-Zionist Jews in the United States, was approved by the Fifteenth Zionist Congress in session here.

Notwithstanding the strong opposition which developed, paricularly among the Zionist Revisionists and Radical Zionists, the Congress adopted by a majority vote a resolution which endorses the extension of the Jewish Agency to include non-Zionist Jews.

The Jewish Agency is recognized by the Palestine Mandate as a public body endowed with the power of acting in an advisory capacity to the Palestine government in all matters pertaining to the upbuilding of Palestine as the Jewish National Home.

The resolution as adopted read: “In accordance with the decisions of the Fourteenth Zionist Congress for the extension of the Jewish Agency for the effective cooperation of all Jews in the upbuilding of the Jewish National Home in the spirit of the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate of the League of Nations, the Fifteenth Zionist Congrees decides that the principal decisions adopted at the Fourteenth Zionist Congress held in Vienna are to be considered unchangeable and the basis for the work of the Jewish Agency, namely: the continuous strengthening of Jewish immigration to Palestine, the redemption of the soil as a national possession, agricultural colonization based on Jewish work and the development of the Hebrew language and culture are to be the foundations of the constitution of the extended Jewish Agency. Equally, it must be laid down in the constitution of the Agency that the president of the Zionist Organization in every case is to be the president of the Jewish Agency and all the members of the various organs of the Agency can in their absence be represented only by permanet deputy members.

“? accordance with earlier decisions, the Fifteenth Zionist Congress awaits with definiteness that the Jewish Agency will contain representatives of the chief Jewish communinties in the world, and also to include representatives of organized Jewish labor. The Congress calls on the Zionist Executive to continue its negotiations with Jewish communities in various countries.

“The Fifteenth Zionist Congress takes congnizance of appointment of the Joint Palestine Commission according to the Weizmann-Marshall agreement of January 17, 1927 and hopes the Commission’s work will be sucessful.”