First Tel Aviv Returns Indicate Dizengoff Defeated

Early election returns today indicated that colorful, 75-year-old Meier Dizengoff, mayor of this all-Jewish city of some 80,000 population since he founded it twenty-six years ago, has reached the end of his political career.

The first tabulated results of Sunday’s balloting showed Mr. Dizengoff running well behind his laborite opponent, Joseph Aronowitz. Of 12,472 ballots counted, 5,804 were cast for laborite candidates. A total of 21,000 odd ballots were cast in the election, 90% of the electorate.

Mr. Dizengoff was mayor of Tel Aviv since its founding in 1909. He turned his entire salary over to projects not financed by the city, such as the Tel Aviv orchestra, the fire brigade and various public improvements.

He has resided in Palestine more than thirty years. Coming here from Russia in 1905, when anti-Jewish pogroms were at their height,

he laid the foundation for his career in Jaffa. During the World War Mr. Dizengoff and other Jews of Tel Aviv were banished to the north. He undertook to supervise relief activities for the stricken Jews, and frequently his life was in danger as a result of the antagonism his activities aroused in Turkish circles.

In 1928, he was elected to the Zionist Executive Committee in Jerusalem and placed in charge of the Executive’s new urban colonization department. He resigned this post after a few months when the project failed.

He has held manifold posts in Palestinian life, including membership in the Jewish National Assembly and the consul-generalship for Belgium.

Recently, he announced that he would not run again for mayor because of the “negative treatment by the Palestine Government of Tel Aviv’s needs.” Later, after he had been visited by High Commissioner Sir Arthur Wauchope, he withdrew his refusal.