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Zionist Leader in France Censured for Attending Communist Meeting

April 3, 1959
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The action of Andre Blumel, president of the French Zionist Federation, in attending a Sholom Aleichem centenary meeting sponsored by French Jewish Communists, and remaining away from a similar meeting sponsored by the French Zionist movement, was severely censured by the French Labor Zionist movement last night.

The Labor Zionists said the present situation of the French Zionist Federation was “inadmissible.” They denied their stand against the president was taken for reasons of “party politics,” and urged all other French Zionist groups to take “a clear stand” on the issue.

It was reported that Blumel’s opponents planned to ask for his resignation, and were seeking to force a meeting of the Federation next week in a bid for that action. A Federation meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled, and the Federation said it could not hold a meeting next week because of “other commitments.”

The Labor Zionists indicated they wanted the other parties in the Federation to compel a Federation meeting before Blumel’s departure next week for London, where he was scheduled to attend a meeting of the British Zionist Federation. His opponents also were planning to press for a change in control of the Federation’s official publication, La Tribune Zionist, in which a three-man board of directors, rather than Blumel alone, would be in charge.

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