Future of Jewish Agency in Absorption of Immigrants Dominant Issue at Congress

The question of the Jewish Agency’s future role, if any, in the absorption of immigrants in Israel remained the dominant issue at the 27th World Zionist Congress today. Many delegates were bitterly disappointed by a joint Government-Jewish Agency statement on the subject last night which had been expected to clarify the matter but apparently left it in greater doubt than ever. Aryeh L. Pincus, chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive, sounded a note of resignation today when he said that the Zionist Organization can never sustain a confrontation with the Israel Government but can only try to state its case to the best of its ability. Mr. Pincus said that it has found “ready ears” in ministers who had been active Zionists for many years.

Last night’s statement announced the establishment of a committee of three Cabinet Ministers and three members of the Jewish Agency Executive which would begin immediately to deal with “the methods of coordinating their respective activities in these (immigration and absorption) areas and the operational aspects arising out of the Government’s decision Sunday with respect to immigration and absorption.” The Cabinet decided on Sunday to establish a special Ministry of Absorption to assume responsibility in that field. The announcement was sharply criticized by many Congress delegates because it failed to spell out what they wanted — the Jewish Agency’s continued responsibility for absorption in its initial stages. According to a previous agreement between Prime Minister Levi Eshkol and Mr. Pincus, the Jewish Agency was to retain control of the absorption process during the period of adjustment after the newcomers’ arrival in Israel. The Government would take over at a later stage. The dividing line between early and later absorption was to be defined in joint discussions between Government and Jewish Agency officials.

Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, said during today’s Congress debate that Israel must decide whether or not it wants and needs the Zionist Organization. “Israel’s leaders must do some hard thinking,” he said. “World Jewry is far from being in their pocket. Does Israel believe that it alone can hold the Jewish people?”

On the other hand, Dr. Goldmann said, “without the moral authority of Israel behind it, the Zionist Organization could fizzle out.” Rabbi Max Nussbaum, former president of the Zionist Organization of America, said that the Government had left the WZO “the choice of dying out slowly or liquidating itself.”

Prime Minister Levi Eshkol today publicly proposed the elevation of Labor Minister Yigal Allon to the rank of Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the new Ministry of Absorption. Mr. Eshkol said that he had formally submitted the proposal to the Labor Party faction in the Knesset (Parliament) and that he would try to have it approved when the Cabinet meets next Sunday. But the plan ran into immediate dissent from other parties in Eshkol’s national coalition government and was sharply criticized today by two independent newspapers, Maariv and Yediot Achronot.

The proposal would bring Yosef Almogi, a leader of the former break-away Rafi faction, into the Cabinet as Minister of Labor, succeeding Gen. Allon. Mr. Almogi was reported here yesterday to be slated for the post of director-general of Histadrut, Israel’s labor federation.