Monthly Archives: March 2025

6 Reasons to Fear Trump/Musk/DOGE’s Destruction of the Social Security Administration – MSNBC

25 Tuesday Mar 2025

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

I posted a week ago an interview with the former Director of the Social Security Administration (SSA), former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, by Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, that is worth hearing. 42 million American seniors depend upon Social Security to survive. 73 million retired American seniors have paid into the SSA throughout their working lives, are receiving the benefits of their labor, and are entitled to their money in their retirement. To threaten their rightful compensation from the SSA is theft, and Trump/Musk/DOGE are planning for massive theft from the American people. Already, according to the Washington Post, the system is breaking down and millions of seniors cannot get through on line or by phone to inquire about their status in the SSA. According to Governor O’Malley, there was virtually no fraud in the SSA before Trump and Musk got their clutches into the system and began destroying it from within. It was among the most efficient agencies of the federal government. No more, and Trump and Musk are to blame.

Contact your Congressional Representatives by email or phone and let them know that you protest (regardless of your age) what Trump/Musk/DOGE is doing to the SSA. See rabbijohnrosove.blog/2025/03/18/the-wrecking-ball-attack-against-social-security/

Today on MSNBC, a column appeared spelling out 6 reasons to fear Trump’s and Musk’s hatchet plan against the SSA and the American people. Read and share this column widely:

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trumps-promise-preserve-social-security-may-not-survive-doge-rcna197794?cid=eml_mda_20250325&user_email=86e74f9d756dd85ca3f2e60cadef0be46f428dea30417c2f6c463e75c067fdd6

For my Jewish readers – Have you voted yet?

23 Sunday Mar 2025

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

At a time when democracy in Israel is being challenged by the most extreme right-wing messianic and autocratic-ruling-coalition-government in the history of the state, we American Reform Jews who care about Israel have an opportunity to make our voices heard in protest. Voting in the World Zionist Congress (WZC) election is our opportunity to take a stand for democracy and pluralism in Israel.

I have written twice on this blog already about the singular importance of this election. I am doing so again because our voting for the Reform Slate is one way for Diaspora Jewry to participate in the future of democracy in Israel. Contrast our intent to that of our ultra-Orthodox opponents who have pledged to get 100,000 votes in order to defund Israeli Reform Judaism and turn back the clock on Israeli democracy, pluralism and peace. 

Israel’s leaders are watching closely to see who is going to emerge as the predominant voice of American Jewry – and it must be us!

If we Reform American Jews vote in large numbers in this election, we can directly impact the amount of resources and funding for our Israeli Reform synagogues, rabbis, values, and advocacy work on behalf of democracy and human rights in Israel and Diaspora communities. The Israeli Reform Movement does not receive the kind of funding that the Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox movements receive from the government, and so our standing in the World Zionist Congress can make a very significant impact on the financial health of the Israeli Reform Movement.

I am running for a seat in the WZC, and I ask for your vote – BUT, your vote isn’t only for me. It’s for our values to help ensure religious pluralism, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ inclusion, and a pathway to peace that includes the return of all hostages.

To be eligible to vote in 39th World Zionist Congress you must:

  • Be Jewish (and not subscribe to another religion)
  • Be 18 years or older by June 30, 2025
  • Be a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident in the U.S.
  • Maintain your primary residence in the U.S.
  • Accept the Jerusalem Program (the Zionist movement platform)
  • Have not voted in the November 2022 Knesset election (and will not vote in any future Knesset election which may be held prior July 28, 2025)

To register to vote, pay the $5 administrative fee, go to https://www.vote4reform.org/

ART WILL S8T YOU FREE – Israeli Artist’s Response to October 7

20 Thursday Mar 2025

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

Israeli artist Tomer Peretz was in Tel Aviv on October 7, 2023, and he volunteered with Israel’s frontline disaster response unit to recover the bodies of victims of the Hamas brutal and inhumane terror attack on that day. The horrific scenes he bore witness to there affected him profoundly, and he sought comfort in creating art with others impacted by the massive trauma–soldiers, former hostages, bereaved children, and other survivors. Recognizing the healing power of creative expression, Peretz founded “The 8 Project” to process suffering and support healing.

The project’s name reflects the number 8’s universal symbolism of renewal and spiritual rebuilding.

My family and I attended the showing (my daughter in-law Marina was a consultant on the exhibition) with a packed gallery of Los Angeles Jewry at LA’s Museum of Tolerance last evening. For those living in Los Angeles, I urge you to visit the exhibition. It is powerful and moving, evoking the tragedy and trauma inflicted upon Israelis on that day, as well as hope symbolized by the number “8” and the hummingbirds.

The photograph above is of the artist, Tomer Peretz, and a few of his paintings are below – a small child on one of the settlements that were attacked by Hamas terrorists, an image of tribute to Israeli paratroopers, to Zaka (the organization that collects body parts after the terrorist explosions, and hummingbirds feeding through the bullet holes of one of the Israeli southern settlements that was attacked and destroyed on October 7.

The Wrecking Ball Attack Against Social Security

18 Tuesday Mar 2025

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

72 million Americans receive benefits for their life-time of working and contributing to the Social Security System established 90 years ago by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As a result, Social Security payments lifted millions of American seniors out of poverty. The impact of SS continues to be significant, as reported by Molly Weston Williamson on MSNBC this week:

“In a recent survey, 42% of Americans age 65 and up reported they wouldn’t be able to afford necessities like food, clothes or housing without their monthly Social Security retirement benefits. Over 11 million disabled Americans under age 65 also receive benefits through Social Security — payments that are subject to strict rules limiting recipients’ ability to earn wages or accrue savings. For these disabled Americans, too, even a few days’ delay could mean not putting food on the table.”

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s YouTube interview with the former Director of Social Security Martin O’Malley in the Obama Administration (link below) is worth watching and sharing widely. The former Governor of Maryland O’Malley describes the damage that Trump/Musk/DOGE has already done to destroy from within the Social Security Administration.

I’ve never forgotten these words of the late Senator and Vice President Hubert Humphrey:

“The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.” 

Watch this YouTube, and then call your Congressional Representatives and Senators (MAGA Republicans and Democrats) and protest the federal government’s dismantling of the Social Security system.

Letters from long ago

13 Thursday Mar 2025

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

My High School Graduation Photo – Fall, 1967

My brother saved 250 letters I wrote to him between 1966 and 1974, and he called me recently after finding them tucked away somewhere in his house and offered them to me. I thought about it but asked, “Why would I want them?” He answered, “John, you really ought to read them as they show a clear through-line between who you were then and who you are now.”

Persuaded, I said “Ok.”

Amongst those letters were also a few I wrote to my parents when they traveled to New York City on a vacation in April, 1957. I was 7 years old.

I read them all in date order over a period of a few days (some were quite long) and was stunned not only by how much I had forgotten about what I did way back then, about the people I knew, the way I thought as a teen and young adult in my relationships with friends, family, American and world events, about my identity as a Jew and Zionist coming of age in the 1960s and later studying in Jerusalem before, during and after the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Taken all together, those letters form a diary of my teen-age and young adult years.

The art of writing in diaries and letter writing, sadly, is long gone. In my teen-age years, the only ways to communicate with others were in telephone calls, but they had to be truncated because of the high cost of long-distance, and in long-form letters – postage was 5 cents. In those years only the legacy media (radio news, network television, and print media) was available. There was no modern technology as we know it today that young people take for granted in connecting in a flash around the world. Consequently, there’s a huge difference in how we older and younger generations think based on our different life-experiences and how we are used to communicating.

On a recent flight home from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles, I sat near an older woman in her early 80s who said after we landed and taxied to the terminal, as everyone opened their IPhones and began checking email and text messages: “Those gadgets are awful, the worst thing that ever happened. I don’t have one and never will. Don’t you agree?”

“Actually,” I said, “there’s a lot of good, but also a fair share of bad that accompanies these remarkable devices.”

She drilled down. “I don’t understand them. I hate them!”

I didn’t feel like getting into a long conversation with her as her mind was obviously made up, but I thought to myself: ‘Technology passes by so many people quickly leaving them behind and bewildered in a culture dominated by the internet and high-speed communications technology. Those who readily and easily embrace the new technologies are part of an ever-evolving culture that influences how they think, emote, react, and interact with each other across great distances. Whereas change in society in all its components was far less rapid when I was young, now what was current even a month ago could be today already passé.’

Yes – the new technologies have brought us much closer to one another, but they’ve also driven us further apart making us less trusting, more suspicious, and quicker to react without thinking about the consequences of what we say and do. So many millions of people seem to be online everywhere-all-at-once-and-all-the-time watching, waiting, writing, and responding. The down side is that there’s such a strong tendency for us to hit send once we record our thoughts but before we filter what we’ve written.  

Over the past 20 to 30 years, with the massive advances in communications technology and the publication of a huge number of memoirs and self-health books, the lines have become blurred between what we once kept private and what we now share publicly. As I wrote my recent Memoir (link below), I had to consider whether to write about those stories that I thought might be far too private and personal to reveal in print, even though they were important seminal events in my life. I knew they could inspire greater interest and help sell books. But, as a public figure, I didn’t really want to tell everything that ever happened to me, however salacious and self-revealing they were. Though my memoir is deeply personal, I chose only to reveal that which I believed had universal takeaways, and I kept my most private thoughts and experiences to myself.

In reading those 250 letters from long ago, I was reminded of the many friends I once cherished, of my failures and successes, disappointments and challenges growing into adulthood, and of the influence my many teachers, rabbis, mentors, family, and friends had upon me during those years.

Those many missives, veritable documentary evidence of my young life, show how I became who I am. They tell of the origins of the choices I made in my life and the ideas, values and causes I championed then and still champion, as well as the decision that I took to become a rabbi. The seeds of everything I would become in my later years were already there planted within me. I’ve grown and developed since then, of course, but I haven’t changed all that much from who I was as a teen and young adult.

I’m grateful to my brother Michael for saving that treasure trove of letters, rediscovering them recently, and giving them to me thus enabling me to take a journey back into the past so many years ago.

Postscript – Last year I published a memoir that picked up where these 250 letters left off – “From the West to the East – A Memoir of a Liberal American Rabbi” – If you have not already acquired a copy, you can do so directly from my publisher – https://westofwestcenter.com/product/from-the-west-to-the-east/  or on Amazon.

I’m running for Congress and I ask for your vote!

10 Monday Mar 2025

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , ,

No – not the United States Congress – Rather, the World Zionist Congress (WZC).

Known as the “Parliament of the Jewish People,” the WZC was founded by Theodor Herzl (the Father of Zionism) in Basel, Switzerland in 1897 and convenes every 5 years drawing representatives of the Jewish people from around the world and Israel to meet together in Jerusalem.

What does the WZC do? The WZC is responsible for dispensing $1 billion annually in each of the following 5 years. It sponsors programs and funds departments and positions that further the interests of the Jewish people worldwide and in Israel.

That makes this coming Congress a very big deal. It is consequently important for the Reform movement worldwide and Israel to send a large delegation of representatives. All each of us needs to do to win the most delegates that we can is to register to vote, pay the $5 administrative fee, and then – Vote Reform.

There are other progressive Zionist slates on the ballot that may appeal to some of you. I am a part of that progressive community as well, and I support their agenda – but, I’m voting Reform because we badly need funds to support our Israeli Reform movement, its rabbis, congregations, youth movement, pre-military educational programs, kibbutzim, nursery schools, elementary schools, and our Reform movement’s social justice arm through the Israel Religious Action Center. The Israeli Reform Movement (IMPJ) is discriminated against by the ruling right-wing government that includes Ultra-Orthodox Parties that prevent the IMPJ from receiving funds as does its own Ultra-Orthodox synagogues and Yeshivot. 

The Reform movement delegation will be part of a coalition in the WZC that includes the Conservative movement and those progressive Zionist slates because our values are very similar.

I wrote about in a recent blog what the WZC is and does and how each of us can easily vote (see Vote Reform – and read that blog here – rabbijohnrosove.blog/2025/03/04/i-ask-for-your-vote-in-the-world-zionist-congress-election-march-10-may-4/

I’m printing below an appeal written by my friend and colleague Rabbi Josh Weinberg, the Vice-President for Zionism and Israel in the Union for Reform Judaism and the President of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA), an organization I once served as national chair. In that position, I was able to see from the inside the three national institutions of the Jewish people (the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency for Israel, and the Jewish National Fund) and come to understand why a large Reform Zionist movement vote total in this election is so critical to the future well-being of our liberal Reform Jewish values in Israel and around the world.

Please read carefully what Josh wrote below, and be certain to vote for the Reform Slate (#3 on the ballot):

“On Monday March 10, voting opens to elect the American delegates to the 2025 World Zionist Congress. By choosing the Vote Reform slate, we will be voting for our liberal Jewish values in the WZC. Our representatives there will help set policies and direct the allocation of a $1 billion+ annual budget that affects Jews around the world. However, this election is far more than simply about funding programs.

Like all Zionists, we Reform Zionists fight for the right to our self-determination as a people in our nation-state, affirm our close connection to the land, people, and State of Israel, and our aspirations that Israel will be a liberal, free, pluralistic, open, and tolerant democratic society.

We Reform Zionists are fighting every day against those extremist Israelis and right-wing Zionists who hold a completely different vision of what the Jewish State ought to be, and who say that we Reform and liberal Jews are inauthentic and that we practice an inauthentic Judaism.

We’re fighting also against those who champion the Greater Land of Israel vision [1], and who fervently oppose any diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We Reform Zionists are fighting so that the best interests of women, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and Israel’s marginalized minorities will be seen and heard and their human rights protected.

We’re fighting so that our Israeli Reform rabbis and leaders will be recognized by the State of Israel, and their conversions will continue to be accepted in the Jewish state.

We’re fighting to say to the world that Israel is our people’s historic Homeland, even if it is not our home.

Reform Zionism is about nurturing the soul of the State according to our liberal Jewish values and upholding the values of Israel’s founders who laid them out clearly in Israel’s Declaration of Independence. [2]

Since October 7th, Zionism is about bringing back those who were taken as hostages from their homes on that day and are still languishing in Gaza, and taking care of those who were displaced from their homes and need to rebuild their communities – and not lining the coffers of those who refuse to recognize the State of Israel and shirk military/national service (i.e. the Ultra-Orthodox).

Zionism is about reimagining what it means to be Jewish in the Jewish State and offering new, authentic, inclusive and creative expressions of Jewish life there as led by our Israeli Reform rabbis (close to 150 Israeli women and men ordained by our movement in Jerusalem) and leaders.

Our Reform Zionism is not only about exercising power to defend ourselves and to maintain our sovereignty as a people, but also about our exercising compassion and care for the vulnerable and powerless in Israel’s midst and under its sovereignty.

We Reform Zionists are faced today with a choice because so many in the larger Zionist tent are striving to delegitimize us as Reform Jews. We can choose to fight for our rightful place at the Zionist table or to surrender our place to the extremist powers that seek to weaken and marginalize us as Jews amongst the Jewish people.

So often, we’re told as Diaspora Jews that we shouldn’t have a voice in what happens in the State of Israel. But we know that everything that happens in Israel has a direct effect on us, our security and our identity as Jews. So, as Zionists, we need to have our voices heard in our people’s national institutions and around the world.

Starting on Monday March 10th and continuing through to May 4th, I ask that you to take one minute to cast your vote for the Vote Reform slate (#3 on the ballot). Your vote will help our Reform movement secure its rightful place at the Zionist table, assure our influence and fair funding of our movement’s social justice programs and congregations in Israel, and thereby enable us to contribute to shaping the soul of the Jewish State itself.

Let’s take back Zionism for our Reform Movement, for our future, and for the future of the Jewish people. Vote Reform from March 10 – May 4.

If you are Jewish and over the age of 18 years, you have the right and privilege to vote in the WZC election. Please do so and ask everyone who qualifies in your extended family and friendship circles, in your synagogues and Jewish community centers, to vote Reform. Every vote matters. We need you, so do not delay – Vote Reform!”

[1] “Greater Israel” generally refers to the notion of expanding Israel’s territory and sovereignty to what proponents of the ideology see as its historic Biblical land. In Israel today, the term is generally understood to mean extending Israel’s sovereignty to the West Bank (of the Jordan River) and, in some interpretations, the previously occupied territories in the Sinai Peninsula, Golan Heights, and Gaza Strip.

[2] “THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open to the immigration of Jews and for the Ingathering of the Exiles from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” (Paragraph 13, Megilat Haatzmaut)

1984 Revisited

06 Thursday Mar 2025

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

The Novel 1984 by George Orwell describes a dystopic nation governed by a faceless and nameless Party called “Big Brother” that watches and listens omnisciently to the words, thoughts and feelings of every subject, everywhere, all-at-once, and all-the-time. “Thought-police” detect even the smallest revolutionary inclination in a single individual and exact the ultimate punishment of death (also called “vaporization” and “disappearance”) upon those who dare to think unapproved thoughts, feel unapproved feelings, and act outside proscribed behaviors. Independent intellectual and creative pursuits are forbidden.

“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street and building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And this process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.” (75th Anniversary Edition, p. 155)

What about resistance to the Party’s intimidation? How could so many citizens submit and become passive to the pathological lying, the loss of freedom, and the rewriting of history without fighting back? Orwell explains:

“The Party imposed itself most successfully on people incapable of understanding it. They could be made to accept the most flagrant violations of reality, because they never fully grasped the enormity of what was demanded of them, and were not sufficiently interested in public events to notice what was happening. By lack of understanding they remained sane. They simply swallowed everything, and what they swallowed did them no harm, because it left no residue behind, just as a grain of corn will pass undigested through the body of a bird.” (p. 156)

I began re-reading 1984 after hearing a number of commentators use the term “Orwellian” when describing Donald Trump’s attack on our democratic freedoms, institutions and norms, and I wanted to match, if possible, the novel’s dystopia to our contemporary political and governmental reality.

I first read the novel in high school. I didn’t remember much about it except that the world of “Big Brother” was something I never imagined could occur in the United States. I assumed that fascism could not supplant democracy here, that the constitutional framers’ intent in fashioning our complex system of governmental checks and balances would spit out any want-to-be-dictator and that our liberal and free society based upon a system of justice and fact-based truth, reason and science would guide public policy and international relationships all within a democratic framework.

However, I was stunned by Rachel Maddow’s two season Podcast of “Ultra” (2022) in which she brilliantly described the near take-over of the American government by Nazi fascists in the 1930s.

George Orwell’s prescient novel is a remarkably weighty tome, and despite his terrifying vision, the book is worth reading again in this 75th anniversary year since it was first published in 1949, four years after the close of World War II and the Shoah, and in the midst of Stalin’s purges and murder of millions.

Though we Americans are a very long way from what 1984 describes, nevertheless, an illiberal, hateful, intolerant, oppressive, and anti-democratic passive culture is spreading across America and becoming normalized day after day. The evidence is mounting –  the corporate take-over of so much of the traditional media that now controls free speech; his planned elimination of the Department of Education, the National Institute of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, and his taking control of the Justice Department, FBI, and intelligence services; his appointment of incompetent inexperienced sycophants to his cabinet whose loyalty is not to the US Constitution but rather to Trump; his following (despite claiming to know nothing about it in his presidential campaign) Project 25, a massive blue print for the destruction of America’s democratic order and our social safety net (Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security) and the enhancement of a unitary presidency; his approval of the government’s release of all private information into the hands of DOGE; his take-over of the Board of Directors of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that promotes the arts and culture in our pluralistic creative American life; his take-down in the Oval Office of the democratically elected President of Ukraine and openly siding with the brutal Russian dictator who invaded Ukraine, killed hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and kidnapped 90,000 Ukrainian children to raise in Russia.

Trump’s bullying, his demand for submission, loyalty and obeisance from his Cabinet and the Congress, his massive unchecked corruption, grift and violation of the Emolument Clause of the Constitution, his un-accountability as codified by the United States Supreme Court, his unilateral and illegal firing of millions of experienced and competent government workers that have assured our nation’s security and well-being, his pathological lying and ignoring the law and virtually all democratic norms, and his condoning of intolerant Christian nationalist extremists all suggest his fealty to the fascist playbook.

I’m waiting for the Democratic Party and its leadership to get its act together and begin with one voice to undertake a massive media and legal campaign of protest to what Trump and MAGA Republicans are doing, to call out their incompetence, illegal behavior, hate and cruelty, to use every means available in the media and the courts to challenge them, to educate the public about what’s really happening, to lay out the Democratic Party agenda that will appeal to Independents and former Republican voters across the country so that control of the levers of governmental power can be taken away from MAGA in 2026 and 2028 and restore competent democratic (small “d”) leadership, reaffirm common decency, human rights, respect for the law and democracy, and defeat Trump’s fascist agenda.

I ASK FOR YOUR VOTE IN THE WORLD ZIONIST CONGRESS ELECTION – MARCH 10 – MAY 4

04 Tuesday Mar 2025

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

I am running to be a delegate representing the United States Reform Jewish Movement in the World Zionist Congress, and I ask for your vote .

The following explains why it is important that every American Jew over the age of 18 votes for the Reform Movement Slate in this election.

When I served as the National Chair of the Association of Reform Zionists of America (ARZA) representing 1.5 million United States Reform Jews, I had the honor of having a seat in the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency for Israel, and the Jewish National Fund, and that experience persuaded me how important it is that we in the American Reform Movement do very well in this election, which means that as many Reform Jews vote as possible.

The following should answer questions you might have about the election. If you have questions after reading this blog, please ask and I’ll respond.

What is the World Zionist Congress (WZC)?

The World Zionist Congress is a central nongovernmental institution in Israel. Often called “The Parliament of the Jewish People.” From the era of Theodor Herzl, the father of the Zionist movement, the WZC was the pre-statehood governing body representing the entirety of the Jewish world. The WZC convenes every five years to bring together representatives from Jewish communities around the world to decide key issues affecting the Jewish people in Israel and globally. The Congress elects the leadership that sets policies and influences the allocation of significant funding of about $1 billion annually. It plays a crucial role in supporting activities worldwide that promote Jewish identity and combat antisemitism.

What does the Reform Jewish Movement have to do with the WZC?

While the Reform Jewish Movement is the largest Jewish denomination in North America, we are a minority in Israel of just 8% – partly due to the lack of Israeli government funding in comparison to Orthodox communities in the Jewish state. Your vote will help to bring funds that are crucial to survive, thrive, and further our core values of democracy, freedom, pluralism, and security, and champion a different vision of what it means to be Jewish in the Jewish State. The Israeli Reform Movement includes more than 50 congregations, more than 140 Israeli trained Reform Rabbis (women and men), an active youth movement, pre-military educational programs, two kibbutzim, a renowned high school in Haifa, and many nursery schools and elementary schools all of which promote liberal Judaismand represents our liberal Jewish values as a counter-balance to the illiberal values that Israel’s right-wing promotes.

Where does the money come from? Where does it go?

The World Zionist Organization receives its funding from various Zionist institutions, donations, and partnerships. A major financial pillar, the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) generates revenue from leasing and developments in Israel. Additional funds come from the Jewish Agency for Israel, donations, membership dues, and indirect state funding from Israel.

THE IMPORTANCE OF YOUR VOTING

Why is voting important? What’s really at stake?

Our representation in the WZC helps protect fundamental rights for all Israelis and Reform Jewish communities. It also prevents extremist factions from implementing policies that oppose our core shared values of democracy, freedom, pluralism, and security. The ultra-Orthodox and ultra-Nationalist movements are using the levers provided through these institutions – and power gained in the World Zionist Congress elections – to advance their extremist agenda, including: rejecting our conversions and questioning the authenticity of our children’s Jewish identity, stripping Israeli Reform clergy and communities of their rights and funding, advancing anti-democratic policies, and rolling back gains for LGBTQ+ rights.

What has been the impact of the Reform Movement at the WZC in the past? 

Our work has proven crucial for Israel’s secure, democratic and inclusive nature and for marginalized individuals within Israeli society.

● We ensured that over $4,000,000 a year ($20 million over 5 years) of financial support goes to the Reform movement in Israel thereby allowing it to significantly expand its reach to Israelis who seek a liberal Jewish community for themselves and their families.

● Our leaders have stood up for a secure Israel, directly preventing settlement building and advancing policies that align with our liberal Jewish values.

● We have passed key resolutions for equality, transparency, and pluralism.

● We helped guarantee LGBTQ+ rights for same-sex partners of fallen soldiers

● We battle for gender equity in Israel

The work of the WZC:

● Supports Reform rabbis and congregations;

● Offers humanitarian aid, inclusive housing for people with disabilities, and programs that empower women;

● Provides counseling and other services for over 20,000 Reform Jews in Israel each year;

● Fights discrimination among marginalized groups of Israeli society through the Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC), representing up to 500 people a year in court.

THE VOTING PROCESS

When does the vote start?

Voting runs from March 10 – May 4, 2025!

Who is eligible to Vote?

In order to vote, one must be:

● 18 or over.

● Self-identified as Jewish

● Live in the United States

● Pay $5 administrative fee

How can I vote?

You can vote online or by mail starting March 10 – May 4 at ZIONISTELECTION.COM. Note that voting requires a $5 administrative fee to help fund the cost of the election. Payments can be made by credit card, e-check, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. The payment serves to prevent fraud by making sure that individuals are voting and are only doing so once.

Why Vote Reform and not for one of the other pro-democracy slates?

● The Vote Reform Slate (the THIRD SLATE ON THE BALLOT) has successfully and consistently represented Reform values in the WZC for decades. Because we represent the largest pro-democracy mandate from the United States, we are uniquely situated within the infrastructure of Israel’s National Institutions (The WZO, The Jewish Agency for Israel, and the Jewish National Fund) to stand up against far-right settler, messianic and anti-democratic extremism. Our work as a movement has proven crucial in defending a secure and democratic Israel:

● We ensured that over $4,000,000 a year ($20 million over 5 years) of financial support goes to the Reform movement in Israel, allowing it to significantly expand its reach.

● Our leaders have stood up for a secure Israel, directly preventing settlement building and advancing policies that align with our values.

● We have passed key resolutions for equality, transparency, and pluralism.

● We helped guarantee LGBTQ+ rights for same-sex partners of fallen soldiers.

● We fight discrimination among marginalized groups of Israeli society through the Israel Religious Action Center, representing up to 500 people a year in court.

ONCE AGAIN – I ASK FOR YOUR VOTE. PLEASE REGISTER NOW OR ON MARCH 10, PAY THE NOMINAL ADMINISTRATIVE FEE OF $5 PER PERSON, AND HELP SECURE THE WELL-BEING OF LIBERAL REFORM JUDAISM IN ISRAEL AND AROUND THE WORLD.