MERCAZ USA Newsletter — Summer 2005

General Council Sets Sights for WZO Congress

With the words "let us uphold the message of the new Jerusalem Program . . . to strengthen Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic State," MERCAZ USA President Rabbi Vernon Kurtz started the countdown to the 2006 World Zionist Congress elections as he accepted re-election as president at the MERCAZ USA General Council meeting. Click here for the full text of Rabbi Kurtz' speech.

The MERCAZ biennial general membership meeting took place on Sunday, March 6th, in Houston, Texas in conjunction with the Rabbinical Assembly's annual convention and the Spring quarterly Board meetings of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Rabbi Ehud Bandel, President of the Masorti Movement in Israel, served as the keynote speaker, speaking passionately to the importance that the Masorti Movement in Israel attaches to MERCAZ succeeding in the upcoming electoral campaign for the 35th World Zionist Congress: "I cannot stress enough how important it is for all of us to do our utmost in order to increase our membership in and representation at the Congress. We, the members of the Masorti Movement, are dependent on you. Over the past four years, with the intifada and terror, we have experienced a drastic decrease of funds raised in North America. Our only more-or-less solid source of revenue has been the Jewish Agency's Streams Allocations. This funding is a direct result of our political sway within the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency."

"Hence, I am here today to urge you to spare no effort in reinforcing MERCAZ and in aiming for a larger and stronger faction in the Zionist Congress than the present one. A strong MERCAZ is a strong Masorti Movement. And a strong Masorti Movement is a strong State of Israel — more Jewish, more Zionist and more democratic!"

Rounding out the program were the election of officers and board members and a stirring "shirah be'tzibbur" (community singing) of a medley of songs by Naomi Shemer on her first-year yahrzeit, led by Cantor David Propis of Congregation Beth Yeshurun of Houston, Texas.

top of page | Sitemap

MERCAZ USA
820 Second Avenue, New York, New York 10017-4504
tel 212.533.2061 | fax 212.533.2601
info@mercazusa.org | www.mercazusa.org