A resolution appealing to the USSR to permit the resumption of cultural contacts between the Jews of the Soviet Union and Jewry elsewhere in the world and to permit the departure of those Jews who want to settle in Israel, was adopted here today by the Zionist Actions Committee, policy-making body of the Zionist movement between world congresses.
Another resolution expressed “profound concern” over the continued enforced separation of thousands of Jewish families, some of whose members are in Israel and others of whom remain in Rumania, despite the promises of Rumanian officials to permit their re-union. It demanded that the Bucharest Government “put an end to this tragedy” by permitting Jews to leave for Israel to join their relatives.
The Actions Committee expressed the hope that the Morocan Government would implement to the fullest its recognition of the basic humen right of emigration and allow those Jews to leave who wish to settle in Israel.
The Zionist leaders drew the attention of world public opinion to the economic boycott carried out against Israel by the Arab states, and called it a “flagrant contravention of the principles of the United Nations Charter,” The delegates scored trade associations and companies which had yielded to Arab pressure and discontinued doing business with Israel, and urged Zionist federations and other Jewish organizations around the world to organize resistance to the Arab boycott.
The 100-member Actions Committee asked governments and states of nations throughout the world to make it “unequivocally clear to the Arab governments that the comity of nations is determined to support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Israel. ” The committee took note of recent developments in the Middle East that had produced a new wave of ominous threats against Israel and reiterated its conviction that the continued competitive supply of weapons to the Arab countries increases the danger for Israel.
PLEDGES UNLIMITED “RESCUE IMMIGRATION” OF ENDANGERED JEWS
Turning to the question of immigration into Israel, the Committee accepted a resolution stating that the “Zionist movement shall work for the bringing of Jews without limit from all countries who wish to settle in Israel. ” Another resolution noted the assurance of the Jewish Agency executive that facilities will be made available for the immigration of every Jew who wishes to leave countries in which emigration has hitherto been forbidden or limited.
World Zionist Organization president. Dr. Nahum Goldmann, intervened in the discussion prior to passage of the resolutions to point out it was not true, as charged by some delegates, that the world Zionist executive had limited immigration to 24, 000 next year. This is a minimum number to be brought in under any circumstances, he said, citing the resolution which agreed to unlimited “rescue immigration” from countries where Jews are endangered.
In another resolution the Actions Committee stressed that the World Zionist movement must accept the task of bringing to Israel its third million Jews with an effort adequate to the needs of the hour. The resolution bailed “the improvement of immigration” from free countries. It urged action to convert a “growing awakening” concerning aliyah into a force for large-scale immigration.
APPROVES BUDGET OF 211, 700, 000 POUNDS FOR FISCAL YEAR
A 211, 700, 000 pound budget for the fiscal year between April 1958 and March 1959 was approved, leaving to the committee’s finance subcommittee authority to work out detailed expenditures in consonance with the committee’s constitutional authority,
It was also decided that in addition to the regular appeals for funds through the channels of the United Jewish Appeal, Israel bond drive and private investments in Israel, every Zionist would be asked to mobilize new funds by other methods–including loans and investments
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.
