MERCAZ Newsletter - Fall 2001

MERCAZ DEFEATS MOVES AGAINST DIASPORA ZIONISTS

Using all of its lobbying skills, MERCAZ USA, together with other American Zionist organizations, succeeded in turning back attempts at the recent annual meetings of the World Zionist Organization and Jewish Agency for Israel in June to decrease the representation of Diaspora Zionists in the two international Jewish bodies.

The first challenge came at the WZO, whose Mandates Committee was considering ways to award representation to the upcoming World Zionist Congress to the revitalized Jewish community in Russia and other former Soviet Union countries. While all acknowledged that the Jewish communties behind the former Iron Curtain should participate in the Congress for the first time, the difficulty in providing representation arose from the fact that the WZO Constitutions mandates that 38% of the 500 elected delegates come from Israel and 29% from the United States, leaving just 165 positions to be divided among the Jewish communities of the rest of the world.

Both the Labor and Likud Zionist Parties, who have seen their share of delegates fall dramatically in the United States, proposed that the new allocation of mandates to the Russian Jewish community be taken from the 145-seat allotment guaranteed to the United States Zionist federation. Their proposal, however, was soundly defeated. Instead, MERCAZ joined with other organizations in supporting a compromise motion, based on the authority granted the WZO Executive, to increase the total number of Congress delegates by 5% in unusual circumstances.

A week later, MERCAZ had to work to amend the proposed JAFI reconstitution agreement to maintain the representation of Diaspora Zionists within the total WZO contingent to the Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors. "While we understand that the demographics of the Jewish world are changing," said Evelyn Seelig, "it is still the case that most Jews live outside the State of Israel, and given that Israelis have the Knesset to deal with their concerns, Diaspora Jewry needs the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency."