Victor Shemtov, who was Health Minister in the last Labor-led government, was elected Secretary General of Mapam Thursday. The vote was almost unanimous at the Mapam Central Committee meeting which also adopted a resolution condemning the arrest and exile of Soviet human rights activist Andrei Sakharov. Shemtov is the first non-kibbutz member elected to Mapam’s highest administrative and policy-making post. There was no other candidate. Although Chaika Grossman, a Mapam veteran, was proposed as a candidate, she rejected it on the spot.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
