Dr. Nahum Goldmann, president of the World Zionist Organization. warned here tonight that it was a delicate and almost insuperable task to persuade young or adult Jews in Western Europe or the United States to give up the political and economic benefits they enjoy and come to settle in Israel. The Zionist leader said that this was a task that required the education of Jews in the Western world to understand Israel’s vital need for aliyah (Immigration) so that it becomes part of their consciousness as Jews. Such a task, he declared, could be accomplished only by a strong, vital Zionist movement but in no case by any governmental body.
Dr. Goldmann spoke at the opening here of a three-day consultative assembly of the World Zionist Organization attended by 100 Zionist leaders from Israel and abroad. Present at the opening were President Zalman Shazar of Israel, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol. members of the Cabinet and the Jewish Agency Executive. Speaking in the same vein, Aryeh L. Pincus, chairman of the Jewish Agency, said that the test of the Zionist movement abroad would be whether it succeeded or failed to stimulate a large scale aliyah. He decried those in the Government and the Israeli press who, he said, were belittling the Zionist movement, thus creating an atmosphere that made it impossible to launch bold undertakings.
Dr. Goldmann also said that the Zionist movement was trying to do two contradictory things — to become a representative body embracing a majority of Jews while at the same time trying to revive its classical nature as a fighting, radical and revolutionary movement in Jewish life. It has failed in the former and should therefore concentrate its efforts on the latter endeavor, he declared. He listed three basic tasks that face Zionism: to secure Jewish solidarity with Israel under all circumstances; to stimulate continued large scale immigration to Israel and to take care of Jewish education in the diaspora.
To think that the Zionist movement could be liquidated and the Israel Government take over these tasks is not only unrealistic but “nonsensical,” Dr. Goldmann said. No government in the present structure of the world can even dream of undertaking such tasks as the education of Jews in diaspora or organizing aliyah. If they tried, he warned, they would create permanent difficulties and provoke legal measures against their activities.
Dr. Goldmann advocated the creation of a movement of “magshimim” — people who make a personal commitment to aliyah, to be a part of the Zionist movement, “a core,” he said, but not a separate entity. He also urged the unification of the various Zionist factions into a central body.
Mr. Pincus also said he favored establishment of a movement of people committed to aliyah and to make its creation binding on all sections of the Zionist movement, He reported on efforts to streamline the Jewish Agency and coordinate its activities with those of the Government. He noted that a joint authority had been set up by the Jewish Agency and the Israel Government for aliyah and absorption. But, he added, it should be understood that the Jewish Agency continues to bear responsibility for these activities.
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.
