MERCAZ Newsletter - Summer 2005

Voter Registration Opens July 1st
WZO Election Season Arriving

As the 35th World Zionist Congress is just 13 months away, scheduled for late June 2006, the electoral campaign to select the 145 delegates to represent American Jewry at the international Zionist gathering begins in earnest on July 1st, with the opening of voter registration.

Voting for the 2006 Congress, as in 1997 and 2002, will be a two-stage process: registration and balloting. Any American Jew, who turns 18 by the end of June 2006 and who affirms the Jerusalem Program, the basic principles of Zionism, will have the right to register. Registration will extend at least until the beginning of 2006, by mail and online, with a fee of $7 for adults and $5 for students.

Distribution of ballots will begin in December and continue through February ’06. Each ballot will list the different Zionist groups participating in the elections, with the party’s platform and list of candidates. Like the Knesset elections in Israel, voters will select the one slate that best represents their views. As with registration, balloting will be conducted both by mail and over the Internet.

MERCAZ USA’s election campaign will be spearheaded by Dr. Marilyn Wind, a MERCAZ Vice President (Bethesda, MD), and Rabbi Richard Hammerman, spiritual leader of Congregation B’Nai Israel (Toms River, NJ). They, together with the other members of the MERCAZ Election Committee, will be working with the different arms of the Conservative Movement that have all pledged themselves to work vigorously on the
campaign.

Voters who participated in the 2002 Zionist Congress elections will be mailed registration applications directly from the American Zionist Movement. Others will be able to get forms from their local synagogue or from MERCAZ USA. For more information, contact 212-533-2061 or info@mercazusa.org or visit the MERCAZ website www.mercazusa.org.