Permission for Agudah Organ to Appear Laid to Its Opposition to Zionist Stand

Jewish circles here expressed considerable surprise today that the “Jewish Weekly,” official publication of the Agudas Israel, was allowed to appear this week-end, while all other Jewish and non-Jewish denominational and political weeklies have been closed down by government order because of the fuel crisis.

Some observers attributed the government’s willingness to permit the Agudah organ to publish to the fact that the publication is highly critical of the official Zionist stand on the Palestine issue.

In an editorial in the current issue, the “Jewish Weekly,” which is upblished in Yiddish, with one English page, calls for a “new deal” with the government and the election of new Jewish leaders in order to prevent the delay which will result from submission of the Palestine issue to the United Nations.

While stating that the Labor Government has gone back on its pre-election pledges, and has failed to revoke the White Paper, the editorial bitterly criticizes the Zionists, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the American Jewish Conference for allegedly contributing to the present crisis by insisting on the creation of a Jewish state. “Never has Zionist leadership, and in its wake Jewish communal leadership, reached a lower level,” it says. “The Agency gambled and lost.”

A delegation of Agudas Israel leaders visited Colonial Secretary Arthur Creech-Jones during the week-end and urged that Jewish immigration to Palestine be increased to an extent commensurate with the emigration needs of the Jews in Europe.

The group submitted a memorandum pointing out that referral of the Palestine issue to the United Nations involved a further delay. It urged that immigration be increased for humanitarian reasons.