How You Can Make a Difference in Israel

By Joyce Winslow, WHC Member

It used to be the land — its intolerable hot sun; wide, storied rivers; and narrow valleys huddled in the shadow of dangerous heights — that set the limits on Jewish life. Now it’s Israel’s government which, unlike in America, pays all rabbis’ salaries and allocates significant resources for the brick-and-mortar embrace of their congregations. The Reform Movement has always gotten short shrift, its love for the land unrequited by Israel’s coalition of far-right parties. But the current far-right government puts “the very survival of the Reform Movement in Israel at stake,” says Rabbi Gabby Dagan, co-leader of Washington Hebrew Congregation’s twin congregation in Haifa. “It is why the election this spring of American representatives to the World Zionist Congress (WZC) is like no other.”

It’s an election in which you have a vote to make a difference for Reform Judaism in Israel. Today’s World Zionist Congress, initiated by Theodore Herzl in 1897, has evolved into an organization of 525 Jewish delegates from the spectrum of Diaspora communities. It is not a lawmaking body. But as the largest non-governmental, global Zionist organization in Jewish life today, its proposals can influence how Israel supports its religious institutions and conducts its democracy. One direct influence is money; the WZC selects the leadership of several Jewish organizations tasked with doling out a huge budget that supports majority-adopted resolutions. The larger the voting bloc, the more money they control.

Reform representatives on the WZC work to ensure that Reform congregations receive an ample share of WZC funding. In years past our 50 congregations and community centers in Israel received a scant fraction ($4 million) of the one billion dollars given over five years to Orthodox and Haredi institutions. Already, Orthodox communities in the U.S. are mobilizing to continue their dominance.

Any adult American Jew can vote for American WZC delegates. Fully 29% of all WZC delegates come from the U.S., 33% come from other countries, and 38% from Israel. American delegates reflect the proportion of votes cast for each of various Jewish factions. We encourage our congregants to vote for delegates that group under the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA). Your vote for the ARZA ticket can put our values to work in Israel.

Foremost among them is inclusion of minorities regardless of country of origin, race, gender, or sexual orientation. Only in Israel’s few Reform and Conservative congregations can girls become a bat mitzvah and women enjoy a voice and place on the bimah. These are the only congregations that also welcome LGBTQ Jews with pride.

Your opportunity to vote for 2025 WZC delegates begins March 10 and ends on May 4. Elections are conducted once every five years. Because of our Reform voice at past WZC roundtables, a proposal that recommended Israel legally recognize as Jews those converted by Reform or Conservative rabbis withstood Orthodox challenges all the way to the Supreme Court and now stands as law.

“Reform Jews lack political power in the Knesset, so our Zionism involves working locally to bring about change,” says Rabbi Dagan. “For example, a year ago on October 6^th we invited politicians running for local office to dialogue with us and be photographed with our female rabbi. We congratulated ourselves on validating women by doing that, but the very next day we felt weak and increasingly helpless as October devolved into shiva.

“Some 38 young adults from our congregation were drafted to defend our country alongside those already serving in the IDF, including my son. Though we could not hold back the tears and pain, we cleared our synagogue parking lot, set up tables, and put out the word to bring food and household goods for Israelis who had to evacuate their homes. Our Reform congregation became the largest distributor of clothes, toys, blankets, water, batteries, and more to replace what our government failed to supply at that time.”

To live in Israel’s two main seasons, war and peace, is to be no stranger to complexity.  This war has forced many Reform Jews to climb above the timberline of mixed emotions, “and hold two conflicting ideas at once,” Rabbi Dagan says. “In our congregation, Or Hadash, A New Light, we defend Israel’s right to exist, and at the same time we care about how Israel is waging this war. The brutality of October 7 is justification enough to secure the lives of Jews in our homeland; simultaneously we need to continue to care for innocent lives as much as we can.”

To that end, the Reform Movement in Israel has been at the forefront of inter-religious dialogue with mosques, churches, Baha’i, and Orthodox leaders in Haifa. “We hold meetings among Jewish and Arab women for mutual understanding and tolerance,” says Rabbi Dagan. “When we see violations of women’s rights we speak up, and we see violations often. It’s not unusual for Orthodox men on a bus to demand that a woman seated nearby move to the rear because they don’t want to sit next to a woman. We speak up. Now we need to speak with volume in the WZC to claim our space and very existence.”

Rabbi Dagan continued, “Our congregation serves beyond our 150 families as thousands of Israelis enter our doors for different reasons. To be here for all of them, able to counsel the broken and broken-hearted, to pray, sing, act on our values, and come together in community, we need more resources. We are vulnerable not only from rockets, but also from a Knesset indifferent to Reform Judaism. With one stroke of the pen, the Knesset could diminish us further. Imagine an Israel where Reform Jewish women have no voice, no visibility.”

The Reform Movement’s rabbinical school in Jerusalem has ordained more than 100 rabbis dedicated to serving in Israel. But where will they serve without the salaries and resources given in greater amounts to Orthodox yeshivas? “Our votes can put more Reform voices on the World Zionist Congress to speak on behalf of Israel’s 50 Reform kindergartens, five elementary and two high schools, and 50 Reform congregations and community centers,” says WHC Senior Rabbi Sue Shankman.

Please plan to vote this March 10 through May 4. Reform delegates under the ARZA banner include our own Senior Rabbi Sue Shankman, Assistant Rabbi Rachel Schmelkin, current WHC Board Member and 2239 Steering Committee Member Rachel Erlebacher, and past WHC President David Astrove.

More information on how to vote can be found at arza.org.

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