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December 14th is the last day that you can register to vote in the American Zionist Election, to be held in February 2002. This election will select the American delegates to the 34th World Zionist Congress. This Congress, first convened by Theodore Herzl in 1897, is the one body that brings together the entire Jewish world to deliberate over issues affecting Israel and the relationship between Israel and the rest of the Jewish world. American Jewry, with a delegation second in size only to Israel’s, has an important role in this Congress: it brings the American Jewish community’s pluralistic approach to all the issues facing Israel and World Jewry. Our participation in the election matters because the progressive voice of the Reconstructionist movement can only be heard if we participate.
I want to make a personal plea to each of you to register and vote for a progressive slate in this election. The presence of a strong progressive Jewish voice is important to me on a very personal level. This voice represents the interests of my children at the Congress.
At the 33rd Congress, the progressive delegations led by the ARZA slate (representing Reform and Reconstructionist movements) and by Hadassah, went head to head with the Orthodox delegations on the issue of whether non-Orthodox conversions should be recognized as valid under the Law of Return. The Orthodox movements want only those individuals who qualify as Jews according to Orthodox standards to be eligible. In 1997, progressive voices won the day, affirming the World Zionist Congress’s support for religious pluralism. For the past four years, this victory has been a major factor preventing Israeli Orthodox parties from using legislation defining who is eligible under the Law of Return as their price for joining the Labor, Likud and Unity governments.
The Law of Return, recognizing the right of every Jew to make aliyah (immigrate), is so important that it is one of Israel’s Basic Laws--the laws that, in the absence of a constitution, make up the core guiding principles of the Israeli judicial system. The Law of Return has enabled millions of Jews from Europe, the FSU, Ethiopia, Yemen, the Western Hemisphere and the Middle East to immigrate to Israel. Together, these immigrant communities have built Israel reflective of diversity of World Jewry.
The Law of Return is not just important to Jews who make want to make aliyah. Since 1948, eligibility under the Law of Return has been synonymous with defining Klal Israel, or who is included in the Jewish people. For millennia, all Jews have viewed Israel as their spiritual homeland. The Law of Return gives all Jews a stake in the modern State of Israel so that we all know that this country belongs to us as well as to those who live there. What would it feel like to be a Jew excluded from this vision because your credentials did not pass muster with the Orthodox?
This is a personal issue for me. My husband Steve and I adopted our three children and converted them to Judaism when they were infants. Our oldest two children have Orthodox conversions and their status as Jews is recorded in a central Orthodox registry. By the time we adopted our third child, standards tightened in the Orthodox world and local Orthodox rabbis insisted that Steve and I adopt an Orthodox lifestyle before they would be willing to convert Josh. As Reconstructionists, we were not willing to submit to these demands. Instead, Rabbi Sid converted our youngest child. This means that his conversion is not eligible for the registry. It does not matter that Josh has grown up as a Jew in a Jewish family. It does not matter that he has a Jewish education, regularly visits his Israeli cousins, or that he self-identifies as Jewish. To the Orthodox, he is not Jewish. If the Orthodox had their way, only 2 of my 3 children would be able to regard Israel as "theirs". Similarly, the 15-20 percent of our Torah School students who have a Jewish father but not a Jewish mother would be excluded. Likewise, our dozens of members who converted as adults under Reform, Reconstructionist, and Conservative rabbis would face a barrier to being full members of the Jewish people. Would these Jews feel the same way about their Judaism if they knew they were excluded from this important aspect of Klal Israel?
The Orthodox movements are going all out to register their membership for the 34th World Zionist Congress. Just as they want to be sure that the American Orthodox community has a strong voice, we need to make sure that American progressive Judaism has a strong voice, one reflecting our relatively greater strength within the American Jewish community. The progressive slates need support from all of us.
Please register for this important election. Registration costs $4. You can register online at www.azm.org, you can pick up a registration form at shul, or you can use the form in this month’s Scroll. You may photocopy this form freely. If more than one person in your household registers by mail, registrations must be mailed in separate envelopes.
Shalom uv’racha-
Judy Gelman
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