Obscure Election News
Surely you’ve heard of the World Zionist Congress.
Joking!
One of the most interesting ideas generated by Theodor Herzl was that the Jewish world needed a representative body. He seemed to understand that many Jews would immigrate to Palestine. By participating physically in the founding of a state, they would fulfill the goal of political Zionism. On the other hand, Herzl was also a clear-eyed realist. He understood that many would never come to Israel, and would remain citizens of the countries where they lived.
Herzl’s solution was the World Zionist Congress, a quasi-parliamentary body, that would make certain soft-power decisions. The edges of its influence have always been porous, but it has tended to operate in education and social service, mostly as a distributor of funds. This year, it disbursed about a billion dollars. American Jews wield a share of influence, as do delegates from many countries world-wide. We all get to say that we participate in the dream.
WZC elections take place every five years and this round concluded about a week ago. Some of the results were no surprise at all. Because there is a boatload of money involved, there was plenty of fraud, deception, and chicanery. Orthodox parties are said to be perpetrators, and they will likely be stripped of some of their gains. Meanwhile, progressive religious streams in the U.S. and elsewhere posted substantial advances in absolute numbers. The Reform Movement went up by 16,000 votes. The Conservative Movement went from about 15,000 to 26,000 votes. A dear friend of mine says this is a triumph of organization. He is exactly right and we are right to be pleased. That sound you hear is movement apparatchiks crowing about their spectacular gains.
The problem with these gains is that they are also a loss. Because Orthodox Jews were more determined and aggressive, they were actually the big winners in the elections. Their percentage share went to 46% and they are the largest bloc by far in the WZC. Meanwhile, Progressive Jews lost substantial ground. Reform is down to 20.8% of the total and Conservative Jews are down to 12.1%. If you’re eyeing the disbursement of a billion dollars, these numbers have powerful implications. In a system that is already stacked against them, Progressive Jews will have less political power to fund their institutions and block the messianist nationalism of their opponents on the right. Remember that it’s not important that Kamala ran a nice election. Ultimately she lost the contest against the worst person in American history. Elections have consequences.
But what we’re really seeing is continuing realignment. Ben Gurion believed that, with a few strategic concessions, he could sideline the Orthodox and create a secular state that made room for the many varieties of Judaism, as long as they were willing to bend to modernity. The last laugh, of course, is always on the visionaries. From draft evasion, to subsidies, to gender-divided bus service, the tilt toward orthodoxy continues its steady course. Conservative Jewish operatives claim that they came in fourth because congregants couldn’t write or pay-to-vote on Shabbat. None of that seems to have derailed the Orthodox who are, presumably, bound by the same restrictions.
The thing that progressives never understood is that if you want to be heard in a parliamentary democracy, you found a party and you get out the vote. Orthodoxy did its part brilliantly. Progressive Jews? Not at all.