U.S. Zionist Leaders Present Their Views at Actions Committee

Dr. Emanuel Neumann, New York General Zionist leader, said today he favored the proposed reorganization of the Zionist movement and that he felt that the practice of individual American Jewish organizations of sending delegations to West Germany should not be permitted.

He expressed those views in debate today in the session of the World Zionist Actions Committee, saying he agreed with the positions on those issues taken earlier in the debate by Dr. Nahum Goldmann. Dr. Neumann added that he felt that some details of the reorganization remained to be clarified.

Expressing a personal view about the career of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol, Dr. Neumann said he viewed Mr. Eshkol not only as a Premier of Israel but as a Zionist with deep concern for the future of the Zionist movement, and as a leader who had given many years to the problem of agricultural settlement in Israel. “I see in him a great builder of Israel and for that I honor him,” Dr. Neumann said.

Mrs. Rose Halprin, chairman of the American section of the Jewish Agency, discussed the proposed reorganization of the Zionist movement in terms of the conditions of life for American Jews. She said that the principal goal of Americans, including American Jews, was the struggle for a better life for all. She said “we must learn to maintain Jewishness and Jewish values while taking part in this struggle in the United States and for the entire world.” Reorganization, she declared, cannot be the complete answer to the solution of the problem of Jewish survival.

Jacques Torczyner, president of the Zionist Organization of America, asserted that the Jewish people, as distinct from Israel, could not have any kind of diplomatic relations with West Germany. He also said he hoped for some kind of agreement among the Great Powers which would deprive the Arabs of their power to blackmail and thus contribute to the pacification of the Middle East.