Increase in Aliya Foreseen

Magshimim (Zionist Fulfillment), a world-wide movement of Zionists who commit themselves to aliya within a specific time, recently concluded its first conference here and, according to its founder, Leon Dulzin, it should double and even triple the flow of aliya over the next few years.

Dulzin, who is chairman of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency Executives, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he sees Magshimim as part of the “Herzliya process” which perceives Zionism not only as a national liberation movement but as one whose mission is to preserve the national existence of the Jewish people. According to Magshimim’s ideology, that can only be done in Israel.

Dulzin said the movement’s platform will be presented at the Zionist General Council meeting here in June and he will propose that Magshimim be made an integral part of the WZO. “I hope this will inject into the Zionist movement a dynamic and active element of fulfillment,” Dulzin said. He noted that the number of olim from the free world has not exceeded 10,000 a year in recent years and he hopes that number will at least double.

The Magshimim platform states that: Aliya is the supreme expression of Jewish identification; the fulfillment of Jewish identity is expressed through aliya as the personal commitment of every Zionist to come on aliya to Israel; Jewish existence is guaranteed, both spiritually and physically, only in the State of Israel and only there is Jewish creativity renewed; the ingathering of the Jewish people in its own land and the consequent fulfillment of Judaism’s values is a central goal in formal and informal Jewish education; the essence of Zionist fulfillment is aliya to Eretz Israel and devoting oneself to the needs of society and State.