A warning against “harmful statements” apt to lower the prestige of the Zionist movement was issued at the meeting of the World Zionist Actions Committee by Moshe Sharett, chairman of the Jewish Agency executive, who called the movement irreplaceable.
“Let us cease polemics and get on with the job, ” he said. He asserted that there had been many improvements in the movement, including the Joining of new young blood, that the organizational frameworks had been strengthened and that good work had been done by the Government-Jewish Agency coordinating committee.
He said it was wise to beware of presenting a picture of the movement as being in a constant state of disagreement with the State of Israel and of the state as a divisive factor in the activities of the Jewish people. He stressed that there were activities in which the state was not engaged which were open to the Zionist movement such as education and information in Jewish communities outside of Israel.
Eliahu Dobkin, head of the youth and hechalutz department, reported that halutzic movements abroad had a membership of 36, 000 and that other Zionist youth movements had a membership of 48, 000. He listed a variety of procedures to extend work with youth abroad and called the shortage of youth instructors “the most burning problem. ” He added that while much work had been done to train instructors, it had not met the need.
A crisis appeared today to be looming over the World Zionist Actions committee on the issue of coopting members of the right-wing Herut party to the Jewish Agency executive Mr. Sharett, as chairman of the executive, told the meeting that the Actions Committee should act on the proposal. However, later he reportedly told the Herut delegation that the time was not yet ripe for Herut to be given membership on the executive. A Herut spokesman said that if entry to the Jewish Agency executive was denied to it, the party would set up an independent political department for Jewish communities outside of Israel.
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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.
