Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 252

were sentenced to five 3^ears in a political concentration camp, and others to five years' penal servitude. The position of the exiles has become worse on account of the authorities having cancelled the former arrangement giving the exiles the option of going to Palestine. Since 1930 the exiles have been deprived of this alternative. The members who have been freed from exile or prison find themselves in indescribable difficulties. The " blemish " of their Zionist political past deprives them of any possibility of getting employment and eking out a livelihood. They are subject to starvation and to the arbitrariness of the authorities, who have resumed making arrests among them. All attempts made by the released exiles to obtain permission to leave Russia have been unsuccessful because of the exorbitant financial demands made by the authorities. The problem of emigration to Palestine, both of the exiles who must be saved from their disastrous position and of the members who have not yet been arrested, is a very serious and important one for the Chalutz movement in Russia. There can be no Chalutzim without emigration to Palestine, and since the training centres have been closed by the authorities, and the members out of prison wander from one place to another, possibilities must be created for the resumption of Aliyah from Russia. The finding of even a partial solution of the Aliyah question for the Russian Zionists is the only means of strengthening the movement and of easing the sufferings of the people who are in prison and exile. MIZRACHI WORLD ORGANISATION. The last Conference of the Mizrachi World Organisation was held in Cracow, Poland, in the month of Ab, 5693, before the 18th Congress. The following were elected to the Central Committee at that Conference : Rabbi Meir Berlin, Rabbi J. L. Fishman, Rabbi Wolf Gold, and Messrs. H. Farbstein, D. Sirkiss, Z. Shechtermann (Treasurer), and M. Genichowsky, representing the Mizrachi Youth movement. A council was elected consisting of 70 members representing the Mizrachi centres in the various countries and the " Torah Vaavodah " movement. One of the main resolutions passed by the Cracow Conference was to convene a special Orthodox Congress for religious and Palestine purposes. During the period under review the Head Office of the Mizrachi communicated with leaders of orthodox Jewry and with Rabbinical societies in various countries with a view to convening such a Congress. The negotiations have not yet -terminated, and the next Mizrachi World Conference will have to discuss this matter once again. The Head Office of the Mizrachi has been in close contact with Mizrachi centres and Mizrachi societies in the following countries : 252