Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization, told the final session today of the first meeting of a special commission on WZO reorganization that, for many Jews, the exclusive party basis for affiliation with the Zionist movement has been an obstacle. He suggested that the commission should consider and recommend ways by which individuals, organizations and communities could Join the movement without party affiliation.
The 50-member commission was created by the 26th World Zionist Organization to make a comprehensive study of means of reorganizing and revitalizing the WZO and the Jewish Agency. The participants, themselves Zionists, were selected without reference to the movement’s party structure. They came from Israel, Europe, Latin America, the United States and Canada, Dr. Goldmann said that the Zionist movement “must serve as the central powerhouse for Jewish life in all places and on all levels, stressing the centrality of Israel.”
The questions examined during this week’s five days of closed commission meetings were: How to attract Jewish youth and involve unaffiliated elements of the Jewish communities; how to strengthen the territorial Zionist organizations and how to safeguard the democratic character of the Zionist movement; the nature of Zionist participation in Jewish communal life; the relationship between the Zionist Organization and the various groups working for Israel, including fund-raising agencies; and how to coordinate the activities of the Jewish Agency with the work of the Zionist territorial groups.
Commission members left today for their respective countries to begin detailed studies of those issues, to gather information, and to hold hearings to help determine recommendations from the three regions — Europe, Latin America and North America, The commission is expected to assemble again next summer, to bring together all the data thus collected, and to take further steps to carry out its Congress mandate.
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.
