The three-day national Mizrachi conference broke up this week-end, with groups headed by Rabbi Judah L. Fishman and Rabbi M. Freedman, and part of a rural group leaving the session.
The crisis developed after a night-long meeting on the question of representation in local institutions. Chairman David Pincus announced that since the steering committee had not succeeded in composing the dispute, a plenum should carry out the election. The presidium did not agree to postpone the conference for a month, and at this point the three factions listed above walked out.
Pincus continued the conference with almost half the delegates present. These unanimously elected representatives to the institutions. The plenum decided to elect a council of 71 and an executive board of 23, plus a representative of Mizrachi women and youth. The plenum also decided to elect a national executive.
The crisis came to a head allegedly over divergences between Rabbi Fishman and Pincus on organizational problems, as well as local politics connected with Mizrachi participation in the Knesset and the Government. Informed quarters say that Pincus contemplated the severance of Mizrachi from Poale Mizrachi and other moves opposed by Rabbi Fishman and his supporters.
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