By Jewish Tribune staff
Canadians affiliated with religious and political Zionist organizations are being encouraged to make their voices heard in Jerusalem at the 35th World Zionist Congress in June. The Zionist Congress convenes once every four years to set the policies of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). The election of delegates in this country takes place at the beginning of April.
Nonetheless, many wonder about the relevance of WZO – founded by Theodore Herzl in 1897 with the goal of establishing a Jewish homeland – 59 years after the creation of the Jewish state.
In a recent column in Ha’aretz, Yossi Beilin, leader of the Meretz-Yahad party, described the agency founded by Theodore Herzl in 1897 as “an anachronistic framework that represents a tiny fraction of the Jewish people.”
Indeed, the number of Jewish people who vote is drastically lower than the number eligible to vote, which may translate into a lack of interest in Jewish and Israeli affairs or a lack of respect for the value of WZO today.
Others, however, maintain that the organization is of vital importance to Jews around the world, and they see it as the parliament of the Jewish people.
Certainly, there is concern that funding for institutions representing the interests of certain groups would be cut should they not gather sufficient votes.
According to Jerry Tepperman, executive director of Mizrachi Canada, “Every person eligible to vote should exercise that right. They should not assume that their votes don’t matter.”
Delegates will be deciding budgeting priorities of the Jewish Agency over the next four years. At stake is influence in significant areas, including the choices of shlichim (emissaries), educational programming and the infrastructure of new communities in Israel.
The results of the recent elections in the US are overwhelmingly on the side of the religious movements of various denominations. The main victory there belongs to ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America, whose message is a demand for pluralism in Israel and a rejection of what many see as the monopoly of the orthodox regarding religious legal issues in the Jewish state. The Religious Zionist movement came in second, followed by the Zionist organization of the Conservative movement, Mercaz.
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