Jacques Torczyner, president of the Zionist Organization of America today criticized the broadening of the Jewish Agency executive by the cooption in their individual capacities of religious personalities into the governing structure of the Zionist movement.
The religious leaders named as members at the recent Jerusalem session of the Actions Committee of the World Zionist Organization, the ruling body of the Zionist movement between Congresses, are Simon Greenberg (Conservative), Rabbi Emanuel Rackman (Orthodox) and a rabbi of the Reform branch of American Judaism who is to be named at the next meeting of the executive.
Mr. Torczyner, who headed the ZOA delegation to the eight day Jerusalem sessions, spoke before several hundred Zionist leaders from all parts of the country today at the final session of a two-day meeting of the national executive committee of the ZOA, the ruling body of the organization between annual conventions, held at the Statler-Hilton. Herman L. Weisman, chairman of the national executive committee and president-elect of the Jewish National Fund of America, presided.
In his address, Mr. Torczyner asserted that “this action will for the first time bring into the movement, which has since its inception been free from internal strife between various religious branches of Judaism, the threat of the divisiveness that characterizes Jewish community life in the realm of religion — between Orthodox, Conservative and Reform elements.
“Moreover,” Mr. Torczyner pointed out, “the religious figures coopted into the broadened executive, while distinguished in their own rights as scholars in their respective fields of religious learning, do not officially represent, nor have they received a mandate from the religious movement in America, for their new posts.
Mr. Torczyner was also critical of the widening of the Jewish Agency executive by the addition of “non-party Zionists. ” He said that he does not believe in “non-party Zionism. ” He asserted that “non-party personalities joining the movement will almost immediately find themselves supporting the viewpoint of one or another party group.”
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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.
