It’s natural to be preoccupied with local events – what’s going on in our own family, community, country. When we poke our heads up we tend to notice only the most dramatic international events (the US elections spring to mind). But it’s also important to be less parochial about our Jewish lives and realise we’re not only part of our synagogue or even the UK Jewish community, but members of the worldwide Jewish people.
And for the Jewish people, last week saw an important, if generally
overlooked, event: the World Zionist Congress.
The Congress was established by Theodor Herzl in 1897 and
led indirectly to the founding of the State of Israel just over 50 years later.
Today, Congress meets every five years and is the ruling body of what are known
as the ‘National Institutions’ – semi-governmental bodies governed by
representatives of Israeli political parties and Diaspora Jewish organisations.
They include the World Zionist Organisation (WZO), the Jewish Agency for Israel
and the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet L’Israel or KKL). They have responsibility
for settlement and environmental activity in Israel (KKL is Israel’s biggest
non-governmental landowner), promoting aliyah (Jewish immigration to
Israel), combatting antisemitism and Jewish education in the Diaspora. Between
them they have an annual budget of around $4 billion.
This matters directly to us. Israel has always been central
to Masorti Jewish life. However, as the modern State of Israel developed, the
Israeli government refused to recognise Masorti and other non-Orthodox forms of
Judaism. Masorti rabbis in Israel cannot conduct weddings or funerals, Masorti
communities receive no public money, and the Israeli government has gone back
on its promise to create an egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall.
The WZO provides crucial funding for Jewish education all
over the world and, since the Israeli government only funds Orthodox
institutions, it’s the only source of support for Masorti synagogues, schools,
youth programs and teachers. Dozens of Masorti communities around the world,
and especially in Europe, are dependent on WZO funding for their existence. Moreover,
the fact that Israeli and Diaspora Jews work together at Congress gives us a
voice with Israeli politicians – they need our support and are ready to
negotiate with us. This gives us a modest but vital degree of influence on
issues close to our hearts: democratic values, religious pluralism and minority
rights in Israel.
Over the past months there has been a titanic struggle over
the future of the National Institutions. Right wing and Orthodox parties were
poised to change the long tradition of including all Zionist parties in the
governance of the institutions by staging a take-over and excluding moderate and
progressive voices (including the Reform and Masorti movements and centre-left Israeli
political parties) from all positions of influence. This would have meant the end
of funding for our institutions and a critical weakening of our political
influence. At the last moment, the representatives of Mercaz, the Masorti
Zionist organisation, together with our political allies, managed to block this
move and install a broad-based coalition (albeit one dominated by the Orthodox
and the right wing) to lead the WZO for the next five years.
More specifically, this agreement includes increased budgets
for Masorti and Reform Judaism, and both movements and their centre-left
political allies have received senior leadership positions within the National
Institutions. For example, Yizhar Hess, the outgoing CEO of Masorti Judaism in
Israel will become a Vice-Chair of the WZO with responsibility for
Israel-Diaspora relations and control of a significant budget.
But these achievements are one small part of a larger
struggle within the Jewish world between the forces of insularity, religious
intolerance and chauvinism on the one hand and those of us who believe in combining
Judaism with universal, democratic and liberal values on the other. (To be
clear, the latter group encompasses people from all streams of Judaism including
many moderate Orthodox Jews.) This week, for example, the Likud has nominated
Jacques Kupfer, a man with a record of anti-Palestinian, racist and extremist comments,
to head up the WZO’s Department for Diaspora affairs.
Our struggle continues. To get involved and find out more
about Mercaz – Masorti for Israel – go to masorti.org.uk/about-masorti/mercaz.
Read more about this year’s World Zionist Congress in this article in Haaretz (£) and this first-hand account by one of the Mercaz delegates.
Matt Plen is the Chief Executive of Masorti Judaism in the UK, a board member of Mercaz Olami and a newly-elected member of the Zionist General Council, the body that governs the WZO between Congresses. Thanks to Rabbi Alan Silverstein, President of Mercaz Olami, for information that contributed to this article.
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