Zionist Actions Committee to Concentrate on Mass-immigration Problem

The three principal subjects of the two-week meeting of the World Zionist Actions Committee, which opens here July 10, will be the condition of Jews abroad, immigration and absorption and Zionist education and youth work, Avraham Harman, member of the Jewish Agency executive, announced today. Sixty of the 140 members of the Actions Committee represent Zionist organizations abroad and most of them have indicated they will participate in the sessions, Mr. Harman said.

The meeting will deal with a situation radically different from that of the past five years, Mr. Harman stated. In the first four years of statehood, the backlog of mass immigration was cleared up and a considerable drop in immigration occurred in the next five years. The opening of migration opportunities in countries previously closed and the new wave of mass immigration during the past six months showed the existence of a considerable “Jewish problem” solvable only by mass emigration, he declared. From October 1956 to June 1957, more than 67,000 immigrants arrived here, compared with 51,000 for the previous 12-month period, he pointed out.

Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the Jewish Agency, will address the opening session on “The Jewish People and the Zionist Movement Today,” The address will be followed by a two-day debate. Dov Joseph, Agency treasurer, will discuss immigration and absorption financing with another two-day debate period following. The third key discussion will review Zionist education and youth work abroad. After another two-day debate, the session will dissolve into subcommittees to work on resolutions for the plenary session July 23. Prime Minister David Ben Gurion will address a closed meeting of the political subcommittee.