The establishment of a “brains-corps for Zionism” to “thoroughly think through and analyze the Zionist movement and structure within the context of world Jewry today and in the predictable future and the problems, challenges and changes it will confront,” was announced here by Leon Dulzin, chairman of the Jewish Agency and World Zionist Organization Executives.
The Zionist “brains-corps” or think-tank will be composed of foremost university academics and Zionist elder statesmen and leaders who will give counsel to the Jewish Agency and the WZO “in determining the program and action priorities and future direction of the Zionist movement, ” Dulzin said at the conclusion of a three-day Zionist leadership conference.
Dulzin was chairman of the think-tank session which took place in Herzlia.
The think-tank will include one representative of each of the 14 world unions and international organizations that comprise the WZO and a group of noted university professors. The academics were identified as Dr. S. Z. Abramov, Daniel Elazar, Shlomo Ekstein, Haim Ben Shachar, Yoseph Gomi, Moshe David, Yosef Nedava and Anita Shapira.
The conclusions and recommendations based on the three-day conference will be presented and discussed at a special session of the World Zionist General Council in Jerusalem which will be held January 8-12. The special session will be devoted exclusively to reorganization.
BEGINNING OF ‘A SERIOUS AND DETERMINED PROCESS’
“This is the beginning of a serious and determined process to analyze and think through our problems with the benefit of some of our ablest minds, ” Dulzin stressed. “There will be no attempt to reach conclusions and make decisions at this World Zionist General Council. Rather, we will begin a process of profound deliberation and discussion within the individual national Zionist federations throughout the world. Our ideas will benefit tremendously from the fact that they will be sparked by the think-tank which will follow our deliberations. It is our hope to reach conclusions and to make recommendations within a year’s time.”
Dulzin reported that the present structure of the Zionist movement, which gives exclusive controlling power to the political parties, has been rendered obsolete by the realities and needs of today’s world. Noting that the think-tank members are unanimous about this, Dulzin said:
“They are as one in declaring that changing conditions demand essential changes in the Zionist structure to permit a brooder foundation to be laid as a base for building a democratic and ideological Zionist movement that will encompass the entire spectrum of Zionist thought. The new structure should give emphasis to educational and ideological causes instead of politics and parties.”
Dulzin said the think tank members alluded to the analogy of the Caesurae Process in which the Jewish Agency leadership accepted the Jerusalem Program. “They see the acceptance of the Jerusalem Program as the lowest common denominator for someone to be acknowledged as a Zionist,” he said. “As a maximalist Zionist criterion they contemplate affiliation with a ‘Movement for Zionist Fulfillment’ through allay at the apex of a broad-based Zionist movement.” Noting that this innovative deliberative process is just beginning, Dulzin expressed the hope that far-reaching, beneficial changes could be effected, “if possible by consensus or by a broad majority. For, on a crucial topic such as this, more than a simple majority is needed for the decision to be meaningful and to carry weight. We Zionists are faced with the critical issue and fundamental fact that our movement has been accepted by the majority of the organized world Jewish community. But at the same time, the World Zionist Organization lacks the influence it should have and must have to fulfill its proper role in world Jewry today.”
It is “obvious that only if the WZO makes the necessary changes in its structure will it be able to be the central force in Jewish life it must be in behalf of positive Jewish life, survival and the up building of the Jewish homeland, ” Dulzin declared.
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