“American Jews Have Voted”

Photo Credit: myvoteourisrael.com

There are minor but significant changes in the makeup of the US delegation to the World Zionist Congress based on recent election results.

Now that the elections have closed and the votes have been counted, 145 new delegates from the US will participate in the upcoming Congress.  Elections for the World Zionist Congress ran from January through April and came to a close with a total of 56,737 votes.

As in the past, the slates representing the three major religious streams have the highest number of seats: ARZA, the Reform/Reconstructionist slate with 56 delegates, Mercaz, the Conservative Movement’s slate with 25  and Vote Torah, the Orthodox/Religious Zionist slate with 24.  While ARZA maintained their delegate count from  the previous election, Mercaz and Mizrachi have lost a combined 18 delegates.

The non-denominational slates, Hatikvah, Zionist Spring and ZOA each gained seats, a possible indication of American Jewry’s shift in affiliations and loyalties today. If there is such a shift, however, it is certainly a slow one; the three major religious streams still hold over 70% of the seats of the American delegation.

ARZA President Josh Weinberg spoke about their win: “The sweeping victory for Progressive Judaism is a clear reflection of our love and commitment to the people and the State of Israel. It demonstrates our desire to strengthen the fundamental democratic principles of the State of Israel and work toward a more religiously pluralistic and just society.”

“These elections reflect that a majority of American Jews are connected and passionate about Israel while also sending a clear message that we want to support an Israel that reflects our values, is inclusive of Jews from all movements, and continues to uphold Democracy.”

Two new slates have picked up seats and will now participate in the Congress: Ohavei Zion with 4 seats and Alliance for New Zionist Vision with 2.  It is possible that the addition of Ohavei Zion, a Sephardic slate, explains the lower numbers for the Religious Zionist or “Vote Torah” delegation.

Sharon Bat Ephraim is the campaign manager for the new Alliance for New Zionist Vision slate:  “While we’re certainly not satisfied with the attainment of only two seats, we recognize our electoral showing to be a remarkable feat for a brand new slate made up of previously unheard of grassroots movements.  We are anxious to use these seats at the World Zionist Congress to advance the goals we focussed on during the campaign.”

“The fact that we received so much positive feedback during and after the campaign shows us that we really struck a powerful nerve in the Jewish world and began a much needed conversation for advancing our people’s story. Although it’s clear that not all of our support translated into actual votes, we still hope to use our two seats and the alliances we will make to force the World Zionist Congress to address our ideas and struggle with new ways forward in advancing Jewish history. We also plan to continue building our movement to continue spreading our messages and create the organizational infrastructure to really compete with the major parties next time around.”

Although the Congress represents all of world Jewry, the US historically sends the second largest delegation to participate in the Congress, which offers the best opportunity for ideological parties to grow.  This potential growth means positions in the WZO and increased budget spending in those departments.

“The World Zionist Congress is the single best opportunity for American Jews to have its voice heard on critical issues facing Israel and the Jewish People” said Rabbi Vernon Kurtz, President of the American Zionist Movement, the American arm of the WZC.

Though the US elections have concluded, there are other countries currently running elections.  The US delegation looks forward to productive meetings with their Zionist counterparts from around the world, in the hopes of creating a stronger Zionist movement.

The 37th World Zionist Congress is scheduled to take place October 20-22, 2015, in Jerusalem, Israel.

This is the count by slate, and the distribution of the 145 delegates for the election of American Delegates to the 37th World Zionist Congress.