Zionist Leader Urges End to Parties in Diaspora

A drastic overhaul of the constitution of the World Zionist Organization with a view to changing membership eligibility by “throwing its portals wide open for the admission of all Jews who wish to join the Zionist ranks without party affiliation” was proposed here by Kalman Sultanik, executive vice-president of the World Confederation of United Zionists and a member of the Executive of the World Zionist Organization. The World Confederation is the coordinating body of all Zionist organizations who subscribe to the principles of non-identification with political parties in Israel.

Addressing a meeting of the European Section of the World Confederation, Sultanik asserted that the World Zionist constitution “is now outmoded in the light of the solid and united support which Israel enjoys among all sectors of diaspora Jewry, a factor which has caused the removal of all barriers between Zionists and so-called non-Zionists.”

Sultanik, a member of the World Zionist Constitution Committee which is meeting in Jerusalem next week on the eve of the Jewish Agency Assembly, said that the outpouring of massive support for Israel by thousands of Jews, young and old, has exploded the myth spread by our enemies that there exists a distinction between Jews and Zionists. “The great multitudes of Jews, particularly the youth, who are contributors to Israel funds are in effect gut Zionists. Most of them refrain from joining the organized ranks of the Zionist movement lest they be identified, through the party oriented organization that beckons them, with a political counterpart in Israel.”

“A meaningful revision of the World Zionist constitution,” he said, “would throw wide open the doors of our movement to virtually hundreds of thousands of young Jews and contributors to Israel funds who would thus be able to wear proudly the badge of a full-fledged Zionist without any party label.”