A discussion of the future of Zionism in the United States was opened here today at the plenary session of the Jewish Agency executive. The executive is meeting here all this week.
The importance of the discussion was emphasized this afternoon at a news conference held by Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization. He stressed the topic by declaring that United States Zionism is “the backbone” of the world Zionist movement. The American Zionist Council, he said, must become “the power-house” of the movement, and added that this was a task which “various organizations, however effective, cannot achieve.”
The world leader of the Zionist movement lauded the activities of various Zionist groups in the United States, naming specifically Hadassah, the Mizrachi, the Zionist Organization of America and the Poale Zion. However, he stated, the influence of these organizations was limited to their immediate membership and to “some fringe support only.” The main question, he said, was: “Does Zionism today educate the Jewish people throughout the world toward unity?”
Dr. Goldmann held out much hope in connection with the convention on world Jewish education, to be held here next August, for the purpose of alerting world Jewry to education as the mainstay of Jewish existence. The convention, sponsored by the World Conference of Jewish Organizations, will attempt to set up an international bureau for Jewish education.
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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.
