H eadlines
Partisan Fighting Divides World Zionist Congress
WORLD ERIC SCHUCHT | JE FEATURE
LIBERAL ISRAELI and
Diaspora groups this week
pushed back against an agree-
ment by a coalition of Orthodox
and right-wing groups that
would have wrested control of
decision-making in the World
Zionist Congress.

The Congress, a 500-delegate
decision-making body, meets
every five years to influence policy
and set the leadership of organiza-
tions including the World Zionist
Organization, the Jewish Agency
for Israel and the Jewish National
Fund (JNF). Collectively, their
budget amounts to nearly $1
billion, which goes to supporting
Jewish life globally in every sector
from security to immigration.

This year, the Congress was held
virtually from Oct. 20 to 22.

The first Zionist Congress
convened in 1897. Traditionally,
parties reach a “wall-to-wall
agreement” so that all parties
to the congress are consulted
before decisions are made.

But a coalition of five parties
with delegates reflecting Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s
largely right-wing and Orthodox
government agreed to change
this practice and reserve the top
spots for themselves.

This would have cut out
left-leaning Israeli parties
and liberal religious and
secular Diaspora slates from
the decision-making process.

Many members of liberal slates
described it as a power grab.

“They wanted to get rid of
the Reform and Conservative
and Reconstructionist voices,
which in America are a signif-
icant portion of the Jewish
population,” said Sheila Katz,
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the CEO of the National
Council of Jewish Women
and a delegate for the liberal
Hatikvah slate. “And it would
be deeply problematic to the
relationship between the
United States and Israel to
not validate those segments of
Judaism as worthy of being in
the World Zionist Congress.”
In the end, a compromise
allowed for more power sharing
than the original plan. However,
the power is still largely in the
hands of the right.

An official from Netanyahu’s
Likud party was named
chairman of the World Zionist
Organization. The chairman-
ship of the JNF will rotate
between the Orthodox Israel
Coalition and the Likud. The
chairman of Keren Hayesod,
which raises funds for Israel,
will be chosen by Blue and
White, a party in Netanyahu’s
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OCTOBER 29, 2020
JEWISH EXPONENT
Representatives from various parties sign an agreement in Jerusalem on
Oct. 22.
Courtesy of World Union of Meretz
coa lition
government. However, if Netanyahu objects
to the choice, Blue and White
will get another senior position.

JNF’s finance committee,
which controls its budget, will
be controlled by the Yesh Atid,
a centrist opposition party in
the Knesset. And the chair-
manship of JNF’s education
committee will rotate between
the Orthodox Eretz Hakodesh
Party and Blue and White.

Part of the compromise was
bringing back the ceremonial
position of president of the
Zionist movement. It will be
filled by a member of Yesh Atid
— the first woman to hold the
position. “There was a compromise
made that gave enough seats to
the progressive bloc, and still
more power to the right-wing
bloc, but allowed everybody to
walk away feeling like they had a
say and a voice” on the disburse-
ment of funds, Katz said.

When the right-wing
coalition attempted to put its
proposal up for a vote, it held
51% of the seats in the congress.

“They just came in and
thought that because they did
well, they could take over every-
thing,” said Marilyn L. Wind,
a delegate for the Conservative
movement’s Mercaz USA slate.

A long-time attendee of Zionist
Congresses, Wind called the
move a “hostile takeover” and
“unprecedented.” But there was another factor
at play: a group of self-described
nonpartisan organizations
(including the century-old-
Hadassah Women’s Zionist
Organization of America) that
don’t traditionally vote for
leadership. This time, though,
they sent a message to the World
Zionist Organization expressing
their disapproval of the proposal.

“If those organizations did
not choose to write that letter
and pressure the World Zionist
Congress, this would have been
over on Tuesday, and we would
not have any power,” Katz said.

“They expressed outrage. And
it’s really the first time that that’s
ever happened. And I think
because those organizations
took a stand, then everyone was
forced to go back to the drawing
board and renegotiate.”
Rabbi Josh Weinberg, execu-
tive director of the Reform
movement’s ARZA slate and
a delegate to the congress,
said cutting liberal American
Zionists out of decision making
would have been unfair.

He said the money that fuels
the WZO and other Zionist
organizations comes from the
Israeli government as well as
Jewish philanthropic organi-
zations around the world,
including the Jewish Federations
of North America.

So Diaspora Zionists feel
they should have a say in where
the money goes, Weinberg said.

“We feel that the budgets of
these organizations are largely
from Jewish philanthropic
dollars from around the world,”
Weinberg said. “That’s public
Jewish money and it’s very
important that there’s account-
ability for it.” l
Eric Schucht is a staff writer with
Washington Jewish Week, a Jewish
Exponent-affiliated paper.

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OCTOBER 29, 2020
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