One quick ask
Friends,
Some of you may know that I served as a delegate at the 37th World Zionist Congress in 2015. It was, on the whole, a dispiriting endeavor, if we’re being honest (and I am always honest with you, my loyal readers!). What was once the forum for the titanic internal battles of Zionism had become…something much less significant. Most of the topics had been hashed out in advance, most of the votes seemed not to matter - so much so that we only got through voting on a fraction of them before referring the rest to be decided by the Zionist Executive (the committee that runs the World Zionist Organization in between the Congresses, in theory following the directives of the Congress) - and the lingua franca of the event was English, making it feel like a (rather poorly run) conference for American Zionists, rather than something essential to the future of our people. This last, at least, is a similarity to the original Zionist Congresses - where I believe German was the predominant language spoken - rather than a departure.
Anyway, despite all that, the Zionist Congress still matters. The outcome of the election will determine how over $1 billion in funding is spent across Israel’s National Institutions: the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), Jewish National Fund-Keren Kayemet LeIsrael (JNF) and Keren Hayesod.
In 2015, I was elected as a delegate from the U.S. in the elections run by the American Zionist Movement (AZM). The U.S., being the largest Diaspora community, sends the largest number of delegates from outside Israel to the Congress. While Israeli delegates represent the Israeli political parties in numbers reflecting the outcome of the most recent Knesset elections, the AZM elections use parties created specifically for the elections. Once, the elections were dominated by the Zionist arms of the Reform and Conservative synagogue movements (both of which are left of center). Today, with those movements experiencing significant decline in their ability to muster votes, more extreme forces have tried to win large numbers of seats.
In the last election, in 2020, a far-left slate received a great amount of fanfare in advance of the election, but ultimately the big winners were right-wing parties, which significantly increased their vote share over recent elections. Either outcome is bad for the future of the Zionist movement, which benefits from moderate voices to act as a counter to the far-right politicians that have more power in Israel than ever before and the far-left anti-Israel sentiment that increasingly pervades popular culture.
This year, I’ve joined with some wonderful centrist Zionists - proud Jews who believe in the core values of Jewish peoplehood and liberal Zionism as expressed in Israel's Declaration of Independence - to create the Jewish Future slate.
If elected, we will use our platform to support education in Hebrew, Zionism, and Jewish Peoplehood here in the United States, which I believe has the potential to improv knowledge of Israel among today’s Jewish youth and help them develop personal connections to Israel.
To ensure that this slate can take part in the upcoming Zionist election, we need to collect 800 signatures from people like you! To sign the petition to help the Jewish Future slate get on the ballot, follow these easy steps:
Click the "Register and Sign Petition" button on the right side of the page.
Fill out the simple registration form with your information.
Proceed to payment – it’s just a $5 fee, which you would need to do anyway to vote in next year’s election (you won’t need to pay again).
Select our slate code, "FUTURE," from the dropdown menu.
Submit the petition, and you’re all set!
During the election, you’ll still be able to vote for whichever party you choose; signing the petition does not obligate you to vote for the Jewish Future slate, though it does mean that your vote will be free next year (because you’ll have already paid to sign the petition :-D)
That’s it! That’s all for now! Thank you for your support!