Dr. Nahum Goldmann reiterated his belief that the 26th World Zionist Congress had the duty to prepare plans and find means to check dangerous assimilation trends among Jews in the free world. The Congress will open in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
He said the lack of Jewish education would bring about the disintegration of the Jewish people. Asserting that in France, only eight per cent of the Jewish children were receiving some kind of Jewish education, he declared that in the United States, excluding Sunday schools, the figure was worse.
Declaring that the Zionist Organization needed the help of the Israel Government to fight the assimilation trend, he urged, at the same time, a change in the structure of the Zionist movement by taking in other groups and bodies not now officially associated with the movement. He said the movement should open its doors to new forces within the Jewish people which were ready to share responsibility but not within the Zionist party framework.
Among other points, he asserted that Israel should first make an attempt to improve relations with Russia because the road to peace with the Arabs “may be nearer through Moscow.” He said he favored declaring the Middle East a nuclear-free zone and that he would seek a change in the present system of elections to World Zionist Congresses because the existing shekel system made “a fiction” of democracy.
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