U.S. Zionists Urged to Become More Active in Encouraging Aliyah

The general recognition of the need for change in various aspects of the Zionist movement and the first real understanding of the problem and need for encouraging immigration from the western world were hailed at a press conference today by Mrs. Rose Halprin, chairman of the American Section of the Jewish Agency as the major achievements of the session of the World Zionist Actions Committee held recently in Jerusalem.

Mrs. Halprin, who returned from the Actions Committee meetings, said that a large proportion of the Israeli press and public were taking a genuine interest in Zionist affairs for the first time in many years following the recent decision to implement organizational changes in the World Zionist Organization.

The Jewish Agency leader stressed that it was now imperative for the Israel Government, on the one hand, and American Zionist groups on the other, to tackle the problem of encouraging immigration from the United States. “If the American Zionist movement does not address itself to the Aliyah problem, it will have failed in this important aspect of Zionism, ” she declared.

Mrs. Halprin pointed out that the problem of immigration from the United States was complicated by the fact that there was a growing lack of understanding between the older and younger generations of American Jewry with the latter concentrating on the problems of American society rather than perpetuating a Jewish identity.

American Jewry must learn, Mrs. Halprin declared, “how to maintain Jewishness, perpetuate Jewish values and maintain our separateness while playing our part in the struggle for a better way of life for the United States and the whole world.”

Mrs. Halprin stressed that, while it is correct that without immigration from the West there is no Zionist movement, “our youth cannot respond to the idea of the centrality of Israel if they do not know what Jewish life is and what it means.”