Pinchas Rutenberg, the “electric force” of the Zionist movement, in a letter to the Doar Hayom today disassociated himself from any connection with the present political discussions on Zionism in London, and tried to cut off the persistently growing rumor that he would be a candidate to succeed Dr. Chaim Weizmann, who has resigned.
Since the engineer broke his policy of abstaining from taking part in any political or administrative bodies by becoming advisory president of the Vaad Leumi, the Palestine Jewish National Council, there has been a wide-spread sentiment that he would be “the man of the hour” to arise to head the entire Zionist movement in a time of crisis.
His letter to the Doar Hayom, however, denies any such possibility. “I do not see myself as responsible in any way for the negotiations now going on in London between leaders of the Jewish Agency and the British Government,’ he says. “I am not going to London to participate in the negotiations and I not intend to appear in the elections for the Jewish-elected assembly,” he declares in reference to his connection with the Vaad Leumi.
“Nobody has proposed my candidacy as the president of the Jewish Agency and even if it were proposed I would not accept.’
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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.
