Labor Zionists Call for Radical Changes in Jewish Education; Aliya Given Top Priority

The Labor Zionist movement ended a five-day ideological conference here last night with a call for radical changes in Jewish education “to prepare youth for Jewish life and for the struggle for the continued existence of Jewish life.” The conference adopted a manifesto placing “alitya” –immigration–at the top of the agenda of Zionist educational and propaganda efforts. The manifesto also urged the Labor Zionist movement and Israel’s Labor Party to concentrate on socialist education and support of Histadrut, Israel’s trade union federation. The Labor Zionist youth group produced a manifesto of its own stating that the primary objective of socialist Zionism is the promotion of immigration to Israel. The youngsters urged the movement to “speak to youth in the language of the seventies.” Earlier in the conference, Histadrut General Secretary Itzhak Ben Aharon said that “anything that will bring more immigrants and will better our defense is more important today” than building socialism. Mr. Ben Aharon noted that there was a “certain stagnation in socialism in Israel,” but said immigration and defense have priority over social experimentation in Israel today and “I will not change it.”