November Bulletin Message
For Your Consideration - Rabbi Mark Dov Shapiro
Most people don’t think of 2005 as an election year, but for you and me it is. We need to register and then vote in the upcoming elections for the World Zionist Congress.
What’s the WZC? Look upon the World Zionist Congress as the equivalent of a world Jewish parliament. Every country where there are Jews sends a delegation to the Congress, which takes place in Jerusalem every few years. At the Congress millions of dollars raised from world Jewry are disbursed in Israel. If the delegates from around the world are largely liberal Jews, more money will be spent on projects that benefit liberal Jewry. If the delegates are Orthodox or further to the right, the money will go to much less progressive projects.
The next World Zionist Congress is scheduled for June 2006. Voting for the American delegation to the WZC runs from mid-November to Feb- ruary. In 1997 and 2002, when elections like this took place, Reform and Conservative Jews registered so strongly that, for the first time ever, the American delegation to Jerusalem was overwhelmingly liberal. Millions of dollars therefore flowed to Reform schools and projects that have helped grow Reform Judaism throughout Israel in the last several years. Here is our challenge. First and foremost, you and I need to register to vote. We can do that most easily on-line. Just go to our Temple website (www.sinai-temple.org) and you’ll find the WZC link on the home page. It will cost you $7 per person to register ($5 for full time students over 18), but the investment is worth it.
Registered voters will receive ballots. I recommend that you use your ballot to vote for the ARZA slate. That’s our Association for Reform Zionists of America.
The result will be an American delegation in Jerusalem next June that will work for funding to support the kind of Reform Judaism in Israel which makes it possible for you and me to live proud Jewish lives in a modern way. One vote matters; your vote will really count!!