The upcoming election for the World Zionist Congress will have a great deal of influence on the future of the Jewish people, shaping Zionist national institutions and deciding how to allocate one billion dollars a year meant to advance the Zionist cause. To best meet this occasion in the most challenging time the Jewish people have faced in decades, we must state the obvious: the fate of the Zionist movement must be decided by Zionists, surely not by anti-Zionists.
If word were to get out that Jewish Voices for Peace, an anti-Zionist, antisemitic organization, was planning on signing up large amounts of people to vote in the WZC elections, we would all be outraged, and rightfully so. What business does an anti-Zionist organization have, shaping the future of the Zionist movement? What right does it have to direct the resources and spirit of the Zionist movement when it opposes it all altogether?
Yet, in the last elections to the WZC, it was reported that “Eretz HaKodesh associated with the United Torah Judaism party won 25 out of 152 seats. Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jews, who make up only about 5% of American Jewry, have more than 16% of the vote.”
In a letter published Tuesday in the United Torah Judaism party’s newspaper, Yated Ne’eman, Rabbi Dov Landau, the spiritual leader of UTJ, wrote the following words: “Zionism is a movement that aims to place the people of Israel on a purely secular basis, which is heresy and rebellion against divine rule.”
He continued, “All national institutions [i.e. such as the WZC] are built on this, and there is no permission to participate with them or hold any office among them or vote in elections for national institutions, in any way whatsoever. Doing so would constitute heresy and the desecration of the name of God. And the fact that we are participating in Knesset elections according to the instruction of our rabbis has nothing to do with any of the above.”
I have great respect for Rabbi Landau and had the honor of meeting with him in person. He is entitled to his anti-Zionist opinion, and I take him at his word. That being said, it is unfathomable that anyone accepting of this position or the political parties associated with it should participate in the elections deciding the future of the Zionist movement. To maintain the integrity of this election, the WZC must make it clear that anyone who does not reject Rabbi Landau’s position in the strongest terms cannot be elected or vote in this election.
This is not to say they are not entitled to this opinion; it is to say that such opinions have no place anywhere near the heart and soul of the Zionist movement. This does not mean to exclude Haredi voices from the future of the Zionist movement. Rabbi Yaakov Ruderman, the legendary leader of Ner Israel in Baltimore, once said and lived the belief that “the State of Israel is a good thing; where would Jews have gone were there no State of Israel?”
Rav Shraga Feivel Mendlowitz, founder of Yeshiva Torah Vodaas and architect of America’s Yeshiva system, told his students in 1948 as Israel’s War of Independence broke out: “If I were your age, I would take a gun and go to Eretz Yisrael.” In his biography, it is said of Rav Shraga that “he expressed amazement that anyone who considered himself a good Jew could possibly go seven days without thinking of some way in which he could improve the lot of settlers in Eretz Yisrael or otherwise improve the Land.”
Rav Moshe Feinstein famously permitted holding joint fundraisers for the State of Israel with groups he usually would not engage with, while many other great Lithuanian Torah scholars from the Yeshiva world, including Rabbi Shlomo Kahaneman, founder of the Ponevezh Yeshiva in Bnei Brak, were staunch believers in the need for a sovereign Jewish State of Israel and believed in its utmost importance. Those who share those positions and are committed to the undertaking of fighting for the future of Israel should be welcomed into the big tent of Zionism.
Yet, the WZC must make it clear that it will not allow anti-Zionists to vote in this election. Just like if Jewish Voices for Peace had decided to influence the direction of the Zionist movement, we would all be rightfully outraged and make sure they could not do that, so too, when it comes to Haredi anti-Zionism, we must make sure it does not take over the Congress. Simply put, any organization that is not willing to renounce the anti-Zionist positions articulated by Rabbi Landau, in the strongest of terms, cannot possibly run for the WZC elections.
We cannot take Israel's existence for granted
The past 15 months have shaken the Jewish people to our core and reminded us that we must never take Israel’s existence for granted. The coming years will take an all-hands-on-deck approach to rebuilding Israel, healing its wounds, and making sure its enemies never consider attacking it again. We do not have the luxury to allow anti-Zionist, sectarian groups to take the resources needed for that.
There are plenty of places for anti-Zionists in this world; the WZC is not one of them. We must make sure that latent or explicitly anti-Zionist organizations are not allowed to run for it. If for some reason they are allowed to, Zionists around the world must double and triple the numbers with which we vote and make sure we secure a maximum of Zionist seats in the Congress.
The writer is a New England-based 11th-generation rabbi, teacher, and author. He has written Sacred Days on the Jewish Holidays and Poupko on the Parsha, as well as hundreds of articles published in five languages.