The World Zionist Organization’s information department is planning a multi-media campaign to modernize and improve the dissemination of the Zionist message world-wide, department head Eli Eyal reported at the weekly session of the WZO Executive here. The campaign will employ the print and electronic media and will also rely to a large extent on lecturers traveling abroad.
According to Eyal, the stress will be on presenting Zionism as “the national liberation movement of the Jewish people” with the basic theme that the Zionist “solution” is still valid. A special branch for the electronic media will be set up and another branch will be established to follow up the feedback of public reaction to the department’s information efforts, Eyal said.
A branch already established is training Foreign Ministry officials and others going abroad to function as Zionist information emissaries, Eyal said. But he emphasized that an understanding has been reached between the WZO and the Foreign Ministry to coordinate their activities. There is no intention for the WZO to act in areas that are the responsibility of the government, Eyal said.
Israeli tourist guides will also be trained as Zionist information emissaries but there are no plans to send information emissaries overseas, Eyal said. He said the WZO preferred to utilize, the local information resources of the various Zionist federations and Jewish organizations for the purpose. The information department is also preparing a registry of academicians and other public personalities going abroad in private capacity who are prepared to serve as lecturers.
Eyal disclosed that a wealthy American Jew, whose identity was not made public, has initiated the publication of a new weekly magazine devoted to Zionist themes that will be circulated with newspapers in the U.S. He also reported that his department will prepare a fortnightly 800-word article that will be transmitted to 25 American publications and periodic information releases will be issued to Zionist activists and journalists throughout the world. In addition, the department will produce a radio and television “magazine” quarterly for broadcast in Israel and overseas.
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.
