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Jewish Agency Names 13-member Cabinet; Forms Provisional Govt. Council for Jewish State

March 9, 1948
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A 31-member Provisional Council of Government and cabinet of 13 for the new Jewish state was named hore late last night as a meeting the Jewish Agency following protracted negotiations among the various parties and ##litical groupings in the Jewish community. The names of members of the Cabinet and the council were immediately cabled to the U.N. Palestine Commission at Lake Success.Heading the Cabinet as Premier is David Ben Gurion, chairman of the Agency ?ecutive. Other members and their portfolios are: Moshe Shertok, Foreign Affairs; ?iezer Kaplan, Finance; David Remez, Interior; Itzhak Gruenbaum, Labor; Fritz ?rnstein, Trade; Rabbi Judah L. Fishman, Education and Religion; Moshe Shapiro, migration; and Itche Meir Levin, Health. The remaining four ministries were assign-one to the General Zionists, two to the United Labor Party, one to the Sephardic community–but the names of the candidates was not made public pending final accept-?ce by the parties and individuals concerned.

Of the 31 seats on the Council, ten were assigned to the Palestine Labor Party, ?ree to the Mizrachi Organization, two to the Mizrachi laborites, four to the General ?onistsm two to the United Labor Party, two to the Revisionists, and one each to the ?yah Hadasha, the Yemenite community, the Sephardic community, the Agudas Israel, ?e Agudah laborites and the Communists. Rabbi Meir Berlin and Helena Kagan will present the Jewish National Council on the Provisional Council of Government.

The Revisionists, who originally refused to enter the provisional government, ?anged their position after it was learned that the Haganah had succeeded in reaching ? agreement with the dissident elements. The agreement is scheduled to be ratified a meeting of the Agency executive tomorrow, at which tine the Revisionists will ?so press for greater representation for their party on both the Cabinet and the council. Following announcement of the formation of the Provisional Jewish Government, ?gh Commissioner1 Sir Alan G. Cunningham today summoned Ben Gurion to confer with la at Government House. Although the exact nature of their conversation was not ?de public, it is reported that they discussed the present political and security situation in the country.

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