Top-level discussions on the future of the Zionist movement and its relations with the State of Israel began today between Government and Jewish Agency leaders.
The discussions today followed a meeting last night between Dr. Nahum Goldmann and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion on the same subject. Dr. Goldmann reportedly demanded that the Prime Minister discontinue his “anti-Zionist campaign.” The same demand was brought up in the initial talks today in which Dr. Goldmann and the Prime Minister participated, as did other members of the Cabinet and the Jewish Agency executive.
Two members of the Jewish Agency executive in New York, Mrs. Rose Halprin and Rabbi Mordecai Kirshblum, came to Israel to take part in the talks. Also on the agenda was the proposal to bring non-Zionist groups into the World Zionist organization.
Dr. Goldmann, speaking at a special Herzl Day meeting in Tel Aviv, took sharp issue with Prime Minister Ben-Gurion’s comment last week that the Zionist movement could be compared with a scaffolding which was necessary to build the Jewish State but is still in place after completion of the construction.
Without mentioning the Prime Minister by name, the World Zionist Organization president commented sarcastically that only the first story of the building had been finished. Asserting that “seven or eight more” stories should be added to “the building.” Dr. Goldmann asked: “How can anyone take away the scaffolding if the building is unfinished?”
He added that the Zionist organization, created by Herzl, was the only instrument in existence to prepare the Jewish people throughout the world for Zionism and personal fulfillment. That organization, he added, should be given all necessary aid.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
