Leaders of the Zionist Organization of America and the American Mizrachi Organization today hailed the action of the Israel Parliament in granting status to the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency.
Rabbi Irving Miller, Z.O.A. president, said: “This action was fully justified not only by the long historic record of the Zionist organization but even more by the vital and effective role it played within the past few years in the creation of the State of Israel. I regard the decision of the Knesset as a supreme challenge to the Zionist organization to rededicate itself to the demands of this great movement in Jewish history and redouble its efforts to help Israel establish itself on firm political, social and economic foundations.”
Rabbi Max Kirshblum, Mizrachi national executive vice-president, said the giving of official status to the World Zionist Organization is “a good and encouraging beginning.” However, he warned that the grant of status did not give Zionism “permanent prestige nor made secure its permanent place in the future of our people.” The Mizrachi official expressed the hope that the Knesset action meant the end of “those statements made from time to time by outstanding leaders of Israel, statements which weakened the energies and enthusiasm of Zionism and which did not draw closer the non-Zionist.”
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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.