A warning that the struggle for Soviet Jewry is “a long term project that does not end with the coming American elections” was sounded here by Louis A. Pincus, chairman of the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization. Speaking at the opening session Saturday night of the second national convention of the American Zionist Federation, Pincus told the more than 500 delegates that he sensed a feeling, especially in Europe, that many people believe that whatever is to be accomplished in fighting the Soviet attempts to profit by the emigration of its Jews to Israel will transpire during the pre-election period.
“Jews throughout the world,” he said, “must not accept this point of view. The Soviet head tax against those of its Jews who seek to go on aliya is a moral issue, and must be fought on moral grounds by peoples of all faiths, races and nationalities that believe in the principles of justice and equality for all peoples.”
Jews throughout the world, he continued, “must have a firm determination to continue their efforts in behalf of Soviet Jewry. They must enlist the support of all people of good will. A start has been made in the academic world, but the base of the fight against the Soviet ransom scheme must be broadened. The officials of the Soviet government, who realize that to prosper they must live and cooperate with nations of other ideologies, must be convinced that the Western world has a moral purpose and that co-existence must include recognition of Western standards of morality, equality and justice.”
Paying tribute to the AZF and its chairman, Rabbi Israel Miller, Pincus focussed on the differences that exist within the Zionist movement, as manifested by the withdrawal of the ZOA from the AZF. Pincus said: “The American Zionist Federation is not a loose organization of affiliated bodies. While it has, and must continue, to be careful to preserve the rights of its component groups, it must develop an overall thrust of its own, a united front in behalf of its common objectives.”
The Zionist movement in the US, under the aegis of the AZF, Pincus continued, must take the leadership in the fight for the right of Jews to emigrate to Israel, vigorously promote aliya, give support on all levels to the development of Israel “and become the practical reality in every sense incorporated within the dream of Zionism.”
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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.
