The decision of the Jewish Agency Executive to halve its present grant of £20,000 for Hebrew education in Palestine, and to give the Vaad Leumi only £10,000 next year for the public school system, formed the main subject of discussion at the first meeting of the Vaad Leumi held at Tel Aviv yesterday since the meeting of the Assephath Hanivcharim.
E. Berligne, of the Vaad Leumi pointed out that when Palestine Jewry took over control of the Hebrew public school system from the Agency, the latter undertook to furnish £40,000 annually towards the budget; the next year this grant was halved, and now it is to be cut down still more drastically.
The Vaad Leumi resolved to support the attitude of its Executive in the question of decentralization, which it opposes. The meeting decided that if the Agency could not continue its grant at the present figure, as a cut would necessitate a chaotic condition of finance, then it would have to withdraw its responsibility for the school system.
The existing Executive was reelected to hold office until the next elections to the Assephath Hanivcharim. Rabbi Ostrowsky offered himself for re-election as an individual, and not as representative of the Mizrachi Organization, which has informed the Vaad Leumi that it will no longer be represented on that body.
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