MERCAZ Newsletter - Fall 2002
Mercaz Succeeds at Zionist Congress

Affirms Israel As Jewish & Democratic

Despite twenty months of Palestinian violence, nothing could stop nearly 1800 Zionists from throughout the world from assembling in Jerusalem for the 34th World Zionist Congress. Even two deadly bus bombings could not prevent the more than one hundred Conservative Movement representatives from standing up for Israel and against anti-Zionism.

The members of the MERCAZ Olami/Masorti Olami delegation to the World Zionist Congress arrived in Jerusalem in the middle of June with a two-fold agenda: to demonstrate world Jewry's solidarity with the Jewish State and to protect the support for the Conservative/Masorti Movement within the World Zionist Organization (WZO) and Jewish Agency (JAFI).

Though its critics may question the need for a formal Zionist movement more than 50 years after Israel's creation, the fact that the Zionist Organization is the only vehicle for formal Conservative Movement involvement in the Jewish Agency (and its $400 million annual budget) necessitated the members of the MERCAZ/Masorti delegation to be up for the challenge for the Congress and its four days of non-stop activity.

The delegates started the preparation for the Congress with an intensive 4-day orientation. Here, the seventy MERCAZ/Masorti representatives from the United States joined with Conservative leaders from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine, Uruguay and Israel. The orientation was crucial on many accounts. First of all, this was the first Congress at which 25% of all delegates were required to be under the age of 30. As a result, veteran Congress participants, many of whom still remember 1948, had to learn to share decision-making power with those who were young children during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

There was also the need to become familiar with the important institutions of the Masorti Movement in Israel, including the Schechter Institute and the Fuchsberg Center, whose financial well-being depends, in large measure, on the $2 million annually that the WZO & JAFI provide.

As at every convention, the formal program is one part of the entire story. Some speeches, like that of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, received thunderous applause, while others, like that of Opposition Leader MK Yossi Sarid, were repeatedly interrupted by hecklers. WZO/JAFI Treasurer Chaim Chesler inflamed passions by addressing the plight of non-Jewish Russian immigrants, while Hebrew University's Demography Professor Sergio Della Pergola made many wonder as to whether there would still be a Jewish People outside of Israel in the future.

But in many ways, the real work of the Congress took place offstage. The MERCAZ delegation had two key political goals. First of all, having entered the 34th WZO Congress with 6 fewer delegate positions, because of electoral losses in the United States, additional support had to be lined up to keep the Conservative Movement from losing positions on the various WZO and JAFI governing boards. Here, alliances with the Green Zionist Party and the Labor-MERETZ faction kept MERCAZ at full force.

The other area of concern lay in passing resolutions that would be favorable to the issues of concern to Conservative Jews. While the Zionist Congress is the basic institution of the Zionist Movement, it also reflects the moral voice of world Jewry vis-à-vis the Israeli government. In that light, MERCAZ lobbied successfully on behalf of proposals defining Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. The resolutions calling for religious pluralism, including a new basic law to guarantee full freedom of religion, represent a positive redefinition in the meaning of Israel as a Jewish State.

Five years ago, at the 33rd Zionist Congress, there was a general feeling that that gathering would be the last of the formal Zionist movement. Today, Israel and the Jewish People recognize that the Zionist movement is still relevant and necessary. Under such conditions, the MERCAZ USA delegates, who represented the entire Conservative Movement, served the community proudly.