Haim Aharon, Israel’s Ambassador to Colombia, was unanimously elected to the chairmanship of the Jewish Agency’s immigration department by the Agency’s Board of Governors yesterday. He replaces Rafael Kotlowitz whom the Board ousted last October after an incumbency of nearly six years.
Aharon, 40, was born in Chile and settled in Israel when he was 15. He headed the Herut party’s aliya division until his appointment to Bogota three years ago. Leon Dulzin, chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization Executives, hailed Aharon’s election, noting that he had chosen the aliya post over an important diplomatic career. Aharon himself promised “a new era” in relations between Israel and the diaspora regarding aliya.
His approval by the Board of Governors was in sharp contrast to the rejection last year of Herut’s first choice, former Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, who was considered too controversial to promote aliya among Jews overseas.
GUTMAN-ELECTED COMPTROLLER
The Jewish Agency Board also elected Renana Gutman, a lawyer, as Comptroller of the Jewish Agency, Gutman was born in Poland, settled in Palestine in 1940 and is a graduate of the Hebrew University. She served in the army with the rank of lieutenant and worked in the State Comptrollers Office from 1958-1977, serving as its director general for the last five years. Since 1978 she has held senior posts with Kupat Holim, the Histadrut sick-fund.
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