Zionist General Council Urges New Approach to Aliya and Efforts to Stem Tide of Emigration from Isra

The Zionist General Council wound up its biennial meeting here over the weekend with the adoption of a series of resolutions calling for a new approach to aliya from Western countries and serious efforts to stem the rising tide of “yerida”–the emigration of Jews from Israel. The Council also came under sharp criticism from some delegates who complained that rhetoric and resolutions were rarely translated into action.

The principal resolution on aliya embodied the formula proposed by the late Pinhas Sapir when he was chairman of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency Executives and was stressed by the newly elected WZO chairman, Yosef Almogi. It calls for converting aliya into a community movement abroad, particularly in countries such as the United States.

Diaspora Jewish communities were urged to organize their own aliya activities and arrangements on the grass; roots level and the “various Jewish organizations and first and foremost the Zionist organizations” were called on to “expand this activity.” The resolution took note of initial steps already taken in this direction.

In other resolutions, the Council criticized the lack of suitable housing for young people, especially single olim, and the lack of job openings for olim who are college graduates. But “top priority” was given to the problem of “yerida” which was described in one resolution as a serious phenomenon (that) affects the economy, national morale and defense.” The resolution called for decisive action “in the spheres of housing, employment and welfare and social services.” in effect the same kind of action needed to stimulate lagging immigration.

MANY DELEGATES CRITICAL

Another resolution endorsed the creation of a special independent commission to examine the entire aliya-absorption problem in Israel. That proposal emanated from the world Jewish Conference on Solidarity with Israel and Zionism that convened here last month. The fact that many of the speeches, proclamations and resolutions at the General Council session echoed those of the solidarity conference–and many of the General Council delegates were delegates to the earlier meeting–was a subject of criticism.

Many delegates said privately that the General Council meeting had an air of deja vu because the drama and sense of outrage and indignation over the attacks on Zionism at the United Nations and elsewhere had been given the same expression at the solidarity conference. Some delegates even charged that the General Council meeting, held on the heels of the solidarity conference, was a waste of time and money and offered only an “overdose of irrelevant verbiage.”

Mrs. Rose Matzkin, president of Hadassah, was one of the sharpest critics of the Council session and what she saw as the lethargy of the Zionist movement as a whole. She said that for eight years there had been talk of practical action “but we are still awaiting action and meanwhile everything carries on in the same routine way.” She charged that Jewish identity had not received practical expression. She noted that the majority of Zionist members in the U.S. were women–most of them members of Hadassah. “Where are the men?” she asked.

Council Chairman Yitzhak Navon offered his own blueprint for action for diaspora Jews who want to identify with the Zionist cause. He proposed nine “commandments”: “Learn 1000words of Hebrew; buy Israeli goods; study the Bible; participate in pro-Israel demonstrations; have a mezuza on your front door; observe Jewish fasts and feasts; buy a Jewish or Israeli newspaper; send your children to Jewish schools; and finally, try to come to Israel.”