In October 2020, I wrote about my experience as a delegate to the COVID-friendly “virtual” World Zionist Congress. Two and a half years later, we received word in December that this April there would finally be an in-person “Extraordinary” Congress, held in Jerusalem. I was blessed to be able to take my 14-year-old son Noah with me on his first visit to Israel.
Initially, this gathering of more than 500 elected delegates from around the world, and another 100-plus from international organizations, was supposed to be without partisan resolutions and instead be a unifying event around Israel’s 75th anniversary. To bolster that position, in mid-January the American Zionist Movement (AZM) the American wing of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), which represents one-third of the elected delegates, sent a letter to the WZO encouraging a program “structured around panels and interactions that allow ample time for conversation and exchanges…”
Shortly thereafter, the WZO announced that each organization (or group of organizations) would be permitted to submit one proposed resolution on the subject of “75 Years for the State of Israel” and that there would be sessions and discussions around Israel’s Declaration of Independence. So, although there would be resolutions, it all still seemed pretty benign and limited in scope. Until it wasn’t.
On April 2, just a few days before Passover, the proposed resolutions (16 of them) were sent out to all delegates. Life gets busy for us Jews right before Pesach, and for an Orthodox Jewish slate like ours filled with working parents whose kids would be off from school on Pesach break for the next two weeks, it’s really impossible to devote time to extracurriculars. Furthermore, with the Congress starting just a few days after Passover, there was really no time after the holiday to review/react to the resolutions until the Congress was almost upon us. I personally was only able to review and share my comments during a layover in Atlanta, on the way to Israel.
Upon reading them I was shocked at how many different ways “75 Years for the State of Israel” could be twisted to justify partisan and highly divisive resolutions. There were resolutions to criticize the current Israeli government, to impose stricter gender quotas on the Congress, to support particular social causes unrelated to Zionism or Israel, and, most egregiously, to target certain segments of Orthodox Jews in an attempt to exclude them from WZO activities or funding due to their religious beliefs.
That last one hurt the most. While many of the resolutions were divisive and flew in the face of the purpose of the gathering and all the speeches about Jewish unity and mutual respect, the carefully crafted resolutions about so-called “non-Zionists” and banning activities and cooperation with them and with organizations whose values contract the values of the Declaration of Independence (which themselves are open to interpretation) were the worst by far. They were clearly targeting Haredi Orthodox Jews in general and our slate in particular.
It seems that some of our fellow Jews care little about our support for or investment in Israel, our high rates of visiting and studying in Israel, and high rates of aliyah. Rather, they care more about our differences: our dress, our adherence to traditional Torah values, our reverence for rabbinic leaders and our discomfort with attempts to diminish the Jewish character of Israel.
But long before there was a modern state of Israel, there was a land called Eretz Yisrael, our G-d given holy land. Long before Theodore Herzl promoted settling in the Land of Israel, aliyah was promoted by the Rambam, the Vilna Gaon and the Baal Shem Tov. It is this philosophy that qualified us for the 2020 World Zionist Congress elections in the first place, and these values are Jewish values, and are not in conflict with the WZO. To the contrary, in a highly fractured Jewish world where Israel is constantly under fire and where antisemitism is on the rise at alarming rates, our shared historical and religious connections to Eretz Yisrael and the protection of those connections should be a cause of unity and celebration across denominations and ideologies.
One of my rabbis asked me if I made any personal connections with Jews from different backgrounds amid the chaos and divisiveness. I shared with him that in my committee room we were debating three resolutions. After a more intense vote, I walked across the room to a slate opposed to our ideology. I explained where we were coming from, why we could never accept the wording they wanted on an upcoming resolution and offered compromise language we could live with. Their delegates first looked at me in shock, wondering what I was doing there, and then upon seeing I was serious, called over the leader of their delegation to continue the conversation. In the end, we worked what we could, and that leader walked over to me after the voting to express his appreciation that I came over to talk to them.
Jewish unity despite our differences. Isn’t that the whole point? If the Jewish tent is so big at the WZO, is it still too small for Haredi Orthodox Jews? I can think of at least one person whose mind I may have changed to agree with, or at least soften to that belief. I hope more will follow.
Marc Jacob, a former Millstone Fellow, volunteers for a number of local Jewish organizations. He is the managing attorney of the Jacob Law Firm LLC and Home Sweet Legal in Clayton, and he lives in University City with his wife and their five sons.
