The Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal will soon establish a World Council of Governors to supervise UIA activities in some 50 countries throughout the world, UIA world chairman, Dr. Avraham Avihai said at a press conference here today. Avihai said the Council was a significant innovation in the work of the UIA, in that it invited overseas representatives to participate for the first time on the highest level of decision making in the organization.
The Keren Hayesod-UIA and the United Jewish Appeal of the U.S. are the financial arms of the Jewish Agency for Israel in meeting Israel’s human and social needs. Some 16 members will be on the new Council, half from Israel and half from overseas. The overseas members will be representatives of the main funds–Australia, Great Britain, South Africa, France, Canada, Switzerland and two other countries, whose names were not given.
The Israeli delegates to the council will be members of the Zionist executive–Dr. Avraham Schenker. Rabbi Mordechai Kirschblum, a former Executive member, will also be on the Council. It will be headed by a representative of the overseas funds.
LEIF YAFFE PRIZE AWARDED
In another development, the Keren Hayesod-UIA Lieb Yaffe Prize was awarded today to Prof. Mordechai Eliav and Dr. Evyatar Friesel. The presentation was made at a ceremony at the Keren Hayesod Memorial Hall in Jerusalem, to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of Leib Yaffe. The director of Keren Hayesod for many years, he was killed in a terrorist bombing of the Jewish Agency compound shortly before the establishment of the State.
The two scholars received the award for their books: Eliav’s “David Wolffsohn: The Man and His Times” (Tel Aviv University) and Friesel’s “Zionist Policy After the Balfour Declaration” (Tel Aviv University and Hakibbutz Hameuchad). Eliav is head of the department of Jewish History at Bar Ilan University. He is a researcher of German-Jewish history, the Jewish settlement in Palestine and Zionism and a founder of the world religious youth movement, Bnei Akiva. Friesel received his doctorate from the Hebrew University in Modern Jewish History and wrote several works on the history of Zionism, including the Zionist Movement in the U.S., and a biography of Zionist leader Julius Simon.
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