World Zionist Organization May Have No President During Dr. Weizmann’s Lifetime

The election of a president of the World Zionist Organization is not likely to take place during the lifetime of Israeli President Chaim Weizmann, Zalman Shazar, chairman of the steering committee of the World Zionist Congress, reported today to a press conference here.

Mr. Shazar revealed that the general sentiment in his committee is to elect two co-chairman of the Jewish Agency Executive with equal authority over the entire body rather than the present system of autonomous chairmen of the Israeli and American sections of the Agency. He also said that the committee is considering proposals for reducing the size of the World Zionist Executive and for matching its party make-up with that of the Israel Government.

Mr. Shazar said that one proposal before the committee calls for the reduction of the Executive to 14 or 15 members, at least 10 of whom would reside in Israel and all of whom would be given the head of a specific department in the Zionist Organization.

He also disclosed that the proposal for matching the party make-up of the Executive with that of the Israel Cabinet ran into some opposition. The opponents of the plan point out that the Israel Cabinet may not be chosen before the Congress ends and that even if the two bodies are matched the Cabinet composition may change several times before the next Zionist Congress and all effort to match the groups politically would go for nought.

Discussions concerning the specific composition of the Executive are not likely to begin before Sunday, he reported. He stressed that all proposals are still under discussion and note have been adopted yet.