Complicated politics at World Zionist Congress

Nothing is ever simple or easy in Israel, and my time there recently as a delegate for the world Reform Zionist movement (ARZENU) at the 37th World Zionist Congress proved to be no exception.

As I flew back to the United States from Jerusalem after the Oct. 20-22 meetings, I felt the same conflicted emotions that I always feel when I am in Israel: pride in the multitude of accomplishments of our people; faith in the moral goodness of most Israelis and their capacity to cope with problems large and small; fear about their safety and well-being and the safety and well-being of innocent Arab Israelis and Palestinians who so often suffer the vagaries of the region; and worry about the sustainability of the Zionist dream that Israel will remain free, democratic and Jewish over the long term.

In my five days in Jerusalem, terrorist attacks continued elsewhere in the country, but they had diminished dramatically in the Holy City as Israeli security constructed walls and checkpoints sealing off Arab from Jew. Twice in the nearly 20 times I have lived in or visited Israel, I have been afraid. The first was in March 2002 during the Second Intifada, when suicide bombers were exploding themselves all over Jerusalem, and again this past week. 

But nothing could have kept me from attending the congress, which was founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897 and conceived as a parliament for the Jewish people and draws together for thoughtful deliberation all elements of world Jewry. It meets about every five years and sets the policies and budgets of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the Jewish Agency for Israel, organizations that spend millions of dollars on Jewish education, social services, urban renewal and rural settlements. 

There is much at stake because the JNF controls 13 percent of the land in Israel and purchases all land for the state. The Jewish Agency controls an annual budget of $475 million in partnership with the Jewish Federations of North America. 

WZO politics are complex, both because of what it does and who is part of it. Israelis control 190 seats of the total 500 (38 percent); the United States controls 145 seats (29 percent); and world Diaspora communities control 165 seats (33 percent). This year, the leading faction was Likud (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party), followed by the coalition Mizrachi (representing the national religious party and the settler movement) and the coalition of Labor-Meretz-ARZENU.

As a Reform rabbi whose primary concerns are diversity, pluralism, the rights of progressive Judaism and Zionism, I was invested in these deliberations, as was the rest of the ARZENU delegation. Thanks to hard negotiations among the top three vote-getters in the last Israeli election and American Zionist Organization election, every religious stream in Israel now receives from the WZO $600,000 annually to build its Israeli religious movements. The Reform and Conservative movements have only this official source of funding, whereas Israeli Orthodox yeshivot and synagogues receive millions of dollars annually. 

Whereas the Israeli Reform movement has struggled for years to develop its institutions and communities in Israel with virtually no assistance from the Israeli government, according to recent polls, Israeli attitudes toward Reform and Conservative Judaism have changed substantially: 56 percent of Israelis are not interested in defining themselves according to one denomination; 10 percent did not understand the meaning of denomination; 26 percent identify as Orthodox; 8 percent identify as Reform or Conservative (i.e. 480,000 Israelis). Our Israeli movement has become a substantial religious and political bloc, and so our influence is now felt throughout the WZO. 

The key positions in the WZO, Jewish Agency and JNF will continue to be held by the same parties that held them before the last elections. The WZO chair will be held by Likud, the Jewish Agency chair by Mizrachi, and the vice chairman of JNF, with responsibility over all land purchases for the state to be held by Labor-Meretz-ARZENU. That means no land will be purchased by the State of Israel over the pre-1967 borders, as has been the case for the last eight years. This does not mean that WZO money will not flow to existing settlements beyond the Green Line, but an important resolution was passed to demand transparency. 

Among the most contentious issues that faced the congress concerned the WZO’s Settlement Division, which oversees all rural development in Israel. This Settlement Division has been identified with the building of settlements in Palestinian areas beyond the Green Line (i.e., pre-1967 borders), and records show that hundreds of millions of dollars were poured into settlements in the West Bank in 2014 alone. The growth of settlements in the West Bank has been a serious obstacle in the way of a two-states-for-two-peoples resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Because the Settlement Division is a private entity, it is not subject to government accountability oversight and has operated in secrecy. Corruption is suspected, as it has funneled large amounts of funds to strengthen settlements in the West Bank, some of which are illegal by the Israeli government’s own standards, at the expense of needy communities in Israel and Israel’s large, suffering middle class.

To address this problem, a resolution was introduced — passing overwhelmingly — that calls upon the WZO, the Jewish Agency and the JNF to be fully transparent in their budgets, finances and activities going forward. 

In all, 165 resolutions were brought to the congress covering a wide range of issues, including anti-Zionist propaganda; the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement; the growth of settlements; Israel’s relationship with American Jewry; Israel’s role in the international community; the establishment of a separate egalitarian prayer space at the Western Wall; the rights of marginal Israeli communities (e.g. Ethiopian Jews, LGBT, Arabs, Druze, Bedouin and African political asylum seekers); the growth of racism and hate crimes in Israel; the status of democracy in the state; an acknowledgment of the Armenian genocide; and a number of WZO constitutional and organizational issues. There was also a call for the unity of the Jewish people and a reaffirmation of Zionism.

The WZO’s Vaad Hapoel (Working Committee) meets annually in Jerusalem between congresses to monitor progress on resolutions passed. The Vaad will have its work cut out for it in the next few years in order to prevent right-wing politics from hampering the will of the congress on a number of issues.

Being a part of this congress was a singularly exciting, exhilarating, inspiring and, unfortunately, disturbing experience. On the positive side, to be able to sit with 500 Zionist delegates from Israel and around the world and debate the great issues confronting the Jewish people and State of Israel today is an experience every Jew ought to have at least once in his or her life. 

That being said, I was appalled at the behavior of far too many delegates from Likud and Mizrachi, the right-wing parties. Their disorder in committee meetings and plenary sessions, their lack of respect for other Zionist delegations, their disruptive delaying tactics when contentious resolutions were debated, and their intolerant tantrums when votes did not go their way did not bring honor to their delegations. 

Too often, they crossed the line of civility. I was reminded frequently of a famous case recorded in the Talmud. After a lengthy debate that carried on for three years between Beit Hillel and Beit Shammai, their argument was at last settled by what the Talmud called a bat kol — a heavenly voice — that declared, “Eilu v’Eilu divrei Elohim chayim” — “Both are the words of the Living God, but the law is in agreement with Beit Hillel.” 

The Talmud explained that Beit Hillel’s decisions were not necessarily better than Beit Shammai, only that Hillel predominated because his disciples were “kindly and modest and studied their [own] rulings and those of the School of Shammai … teach[ing] that the one who humbles oneself is raised up by the Holy One.”

Hillel’s humility and respectful debate are what we need more of now, and despite the model of the inclusivity of the Jewish people under the umbrella of the congress, such respectful and civil debate is increasingly rare — not only in Israel, but also in the American-Jewish community. 

Perhaps our greatest challenge as a people is to reverse that uncivil trend before it is too late.

Rabbi John Rosove is senior rabbi of Temple Israel of Hollywood and was a member of the ARZENU delegation at the World Zionist Congress. He also serves as a national co-chair of J Street’s Rabbinic Cabinet.