World Zionist Congress Information

Reform/ARZA World Zionist Congress Election Campaign 2025

Sign up here: https://urj.tfaforms.net/1507

Do you care about Israel? Are you concerned with the current situation in Israel? Have you felt powerless to help secure our future? There is something we are doing together as a Reform Movement to impact the future of Israel!

Voting for the Reform slate in the WZC elections is a vote for peace, pluralism, Reform Judaism, hostage returns, strengthening our Jewish communities, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ rights, and for democracy and civil society in Israel.

A Letter from Rabbi Yael Dadoun:

Dear fellow Mishkan Or members,

When my husband, Joe, and I were ready to tie the knot, we decided that we wanted the big day to take place in Israel. As we started the process of marriage, we learned that our rabbi couldn’t officiate our wedding in Israel simply because he was ordained a Reform rabbi. Having learned that only ultra-Orthodox rabbis perform life cycles in Israel, we pivoted to getting married in the United States and only have our wedding celebration in Israel.

This, among other issues, are policies made by the Israeli government that can exclude the Reform Jewish voice. Thankfully, we have a political presence in Israel – the World Zionist Congress (WZC), which meets every five years providing Diaspora Jews with the opportunity to express their views that shape policies and government-sponsored programs in Israel.

We are represented by ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists of America, which works with the Reform Movement to promote a more equal, democratic, and pluralistic Israel. As a part of the WZC elections, ARZA prepared a slate of delegates that would represent and advocate for our values in the coming years when the Congress assembles.

The delegates that will serve at the WZC will be determined by how many people vote for the Reform slate. Rabbi Elle Muhlbaum, Mishkan Or member, Dr. Tom Abelson, and I are all on the ARZA slate- so a vote for Reform is not only a vote for our values, but it is a vote for your clergy and members of our community to represent our movement!

As American Jews we should concern ourselves with the Reform Movement globally, especially in Israel. We should receive the same funds and opportunities as other movements in Israel. Moreover, our way progressive values and Jewish practice should be recognized in the Jewish homeland and voting in the WZC ensures that our Jewish experience matters and your vote can make all the difference.

Your vote is needed to help ensure religious pluralism, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and a path to peace.
Your vote is needed to ensure that the 300 shlichim (Israeli counselors) that work with 14 Reform Jewish summer camps continue to make connections with 12,000 campers and counselors.
Your vote is needed to ensure religious equality where all Jewish traditions and forms of observance are respected, with full recognition of liberal Movements.

Let us together cast our vote for our voice to be heard!

Rabbi Yael Dadoun, Congregation Mishkan Or

What is the World Zionist Congress?

The WZC is a democratically elected international body that helps decide the direction of Israel and World Jewry. It is essentially the “Parliament of the Jewish People.” It meets
every 5 years.
Many years before Israel became a state, the international Jewish community came together, under the direction of Theodore Herzl and began to develop the Institutions that would eventually participate in the development of the future Jewish state. That World Zionist Organization (WZO), made up of Jews from all over the world, began to meet in a World Zionist Congress (WZC), meeting every 5 years as democratically elected representatives of world-wide Jewry.
We will have the opportunity, from March 10 – May 4, to elect our Reform Jewish representatitves to the Congress that will meet next fall. The more delegates we elect to the WZC, the more that Congress will reflect the our Reform Jewish values.
The World Zionist Congress is an important, institutional way for Reform voices and Reform values to have a real and impactful say in how Israel spends its money and treats its people. It is a right and a responsibility for Diaspora Jews to vote in this election.

Why Vote?

We are at a turning point in Jewish history. The voices and activism of the Reform Jewish community in North America has never been more crucial to the future of the State of Israel and of the Jewish People.
Even before October 7, 2023 we became aware of interal forces that had the potential to upend Israeli democracy. On October 7 we became painfully aware of external existential threats to the security of Israel.
At the same time, we are facing rising levels of shocking, overt anti-Semitism in America – especially impacting our young people. In 2025 there is no opting out – what happens in Israel affects all of us.
We are up against motivated and disciplined opponents whose vision for the future of Israel is diametrically opposed to ours. Right wing, religious fundamentalists are organizing against us with plans to roll back all the issues we care about – to chip away at Israel’s democracy; to roll back gains for LGBTQ+ rights, gender equity, and religious pluralism; to strip our Israeli Reform clergy and communities of their rights, funding, and infrastructure and make sure that our converts and children are not welcome in the Jewish state; to block any hope of Palestinian self-determination and safety. They want to write the next chapter of Jewish history and write us out of it– our values of pursuing justice demand that we cannot let that happen! We, members of the world-wide Reform Movement are organizing and mobilizing to ensure that they do not succeed.

Will you join us?

Please Sign our Pledge to Vote in the WZC election. Join our mailing list, and read about our plans to get out the vote, and help us reach our goal of 2000 votes from Mishkan Or.
Be prepared to VOTE REFORM, during the period between March 10 and May 4. We pledge to make it easy for you to do so, with knowledge, understanding and devotion to a secure, democratic Jewish future in Israel.
Sign up here: https://urj.tfaforms.net/1507