MERCAZ USA Newsletter — Fall 2009

June 2010 Set for 36th Zionist Congress: Date and Place Fixed But Not Method for Delegate Selection

Despite pressure to postpone for a year the 36th World Zionist Congress, the WZO's Zionist General Council, including its dozen MERCAZ representatives, approved a resolution at its recent annual meetings in June to schedule the next Congress in Jerusalem for June 2010.

MERCAZ USA -- MERCAZ leaders visit newly revitalized Kibbutz Hannaton during a recent mission to Israel.

MERCAZ leaders visiting newly revitalized Kibbutz Hannaton during a recent mission to Israel.

However, while the uncertainties have been resolved about the "where" and "when" regarding the next congress, there is still no agreement as to how the delegated for the international Jewish parliament will be selected, with efforts being made to find a less costly alternative to elections.

As a reflection of the popular spirit of Zionism, the representatives to the World Zionist Congress have historically been elected democratically, according to the "one shekel, one person, one vote" rule. In fact, at the last Zionist Congress, all other methods that had been used in the past to field "100% consensus delegations" were eliminated in favor of requiring free and open Zionist elections everywhere as have been practiced in the United States for the past dozen years.

However, elections have proved to be an extremely costly activity. These costs fall both on the World Zionist Organization and the individual Zionist parties. The WZO or its territorial affiliates, such as the American Zionist Movement, need to cover the costs for the registration and balloting operations, which here in the United States ran upwards towards $1 million in 2006. This means passing on a large part of the expenses to the individual voters in the form of a "poll tax".

Additionally, to run an effective campaign, each of the Zionist organizations participating in the elections has to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in publicity and "get-out-the-vote" activities.

In normal times, such expenses could be justified as the cost of doing Zionist political business. However, twelve months into the worst economic meltdown since World War II and, in some quarters, the Great Depression, such costs appear untenable, with the fear that raising the registration fee to $10 or more will effectively drive most voters away.

These financial concerns have consequently prompted a number of American Zionist leaders to propose alternatives to elections to select the 145 U.S. representatives to the 36th Zionist Congress. Among the proposals are to freeze representation at the levels from the 2006 Congress. Another suggestion includes reinstating the "100% consensus" option.

One interesting proposal being circulated is to use the organizations' membership rolls as a measure of their popular support in the community. Should this option be adopted, for example, each of the American Zionist organizations seeking representation within the American delegation would receive a percentage of the delegation reflecting the size of its membership.

It is anticipated that the method for selecting the American delegated will be finalized before the end of 2009.

As MERCAZ USA President Dr. Stephen Wolnek remarked, "We have been preparing for the next Zionist Congress elections for the past three years, but the financial crisis has obviously affected MERCAZ as its affected other organizations. And it's the same story for the other arms of the Conservative Movement to whom we would be turning for support. On the other hand, freezing the election results from 2006 for the new congress seems unfair."

"Measuring membership levels is an interesting option, in that every Zionist organization is already involved in its annual membership campaign, so this wouldn't require us to spend a lot more than we are already doing in order to secure our share of representation. As soon as we know how the American delegation to the 2010 World Zionist Congress will be selected, we will immediately take the necessary steps to mobilize our supporters.

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