World Zionist Congress 2025: This Is Why You Voted
Here is what I know: If there are tables where decisions are being made, we want to be sitting at them.
We do not sit at these tables to steal a seat from others, or to glorify our own names. Instead, we style ourselves after our ancestor, Abraham, and his covenantal relationship with God. As we learn in our Torah: “For I have selected [Abraham],” God reflects, “so that he may teach his children and those who come after him to keep the way of the Eternal, doing what is right and just, so that the Eternal may fulfill for Abraham all that has been promised to him,” (Genesis 18:19).
As Reform Movement delegates to the 39th World Zionist Congress, as Arezenu Olami, we arrived last week in Jerusalem powered by our numbers, resolved in our values, and united through covenantal, trusting relationships.
Our incredible wins on key policy resolutions speak to the impact of your votes. You seated us at those tables of righteousness, in those halls of justice. This is why you voted.
This Congress was our moment to say — we have a vision for what Zionism and Israel can be: inclusive, democratic, pluralistic, secure, and on a path to peace.
I was honored to have been elected as a delegate to the Congress, representing Women of Reform Judaism (WRJ) and our Reform Movement. WRJ was also represented at the Congress by our President, Karen Sim (observer), and Executive Committee Members Shoshana Dweck (delegate and Arzenu Olami co-chair), Alyse Kirschen (alternate), and Karen Goldberg (observer).
The World Zionist Congress typically meets every five years, and has done so since the late 1800s, fulfilling Theodore Herzl’s vision that Jews from around the world should have a stake and a say in what our Zionism looks like, in shaping the now modern State of Israel. The Congress establishes policy for the spending, budgets, and programs of several national Israeli institutions, from Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael, which owns more than 10% of the land of Israel and has oversight of environmental and land use issues; to the Jewish Agency, which supports bringing Israeli shlichim, emissaries, to our Jewish communities and our summer camps.
As delegates, elected by your votes and your commitment, our work was to negotiate, organize, and pass through a huge docket of resolutions that provide oversight for the spending of one billion dollars over the next five years. Additionally, power-sharing agreements - which are still currently under negotiation - determine who will hold positions of authority to oversee these institutions.
The Congress was held in the International Convention Center, a large conference building in Jerusalem. On the first day, we heard from President Herzog of Israel and other leaders. On the second day, things got interesting. We divided into ten committees to consider those policy resolutions. The resolutions dictate the way shekels are spent, and they are also a clear way to express our values. I led a group of our delegates in the Committee on National and Social Policy. Our committee meeting was called for 10:15; our Arezenu Olami delegates were seated, eager, and ready at 9am. If there is a seat at the table - take it!
Through several hours of debate, our committee successfully amended and recommended several resolutions on to the Voting Plenary, on topics as varied as supporting funding for Holocaust survivors and speaking out against resources being sent toward any attempted resettlement of Gaza. We worked in lock step with representatives of the Conservative movement, other aligned parties around the table, and within our Reform movement slate. We trusted each other, even as we listened to ultra-orthodox representatives in the committee say hateful, closed-minded things about us and our communities. Our unified manner and respectful approach did not waver.
At one point during meeting, it was quite warm in the room, and we had been there for hours. Due to the rules of the committee, we were not permitted to leave for any reason - doing so would forfeit a vote. I stood up and walked toward the back corner of the room. Fanning myself, the leader of the ultra-orthodox party came over and asked if I was alright. We introduced ourselves politely (I was sure to emphasize that I was RABBI Liz Hirsch) and I asked him “Where are you at on this resolution?” He was in favor and said so. Our voting block was not in support, and I told him so. “Is there a way we could make it better for you?” he asked me. I mentioned several clauses of the resolution that were a particular affront to our values. “We could live without those,” he replied. I then asked him if HE would propose the amendments to the resolution, so they would be seen as friendly to the party who had presented it initially. He agreed, and we returned to our seats, still warm and in need of lunch. There is always a way to find a way to work together.
At the conclusion of those very long committee meetings, a rumor began to float around the halls of the Congress. A protest of 500,000 Haredi ultra-orthodox was expected in Jerusalem the next day, the day we were supposed to vote on the entire docket of resolutions in a full-Congress plenary session. They were protesting being drafted into the Israeli army. Exemption from military service is a benefit that Haredim have long enjoyed and this has also long angered secular and religious Israelis who do serve in the IDF. The issue has been under debate for several months and was coming to a head - right out the front door of the Congress.
It soon became clear that we would be unable to get to the Congress the next morning, and an emergency voting session was called for Wednesday instead, with all voting delegates assembled from 6pm until after 11pm that same night. In a large auditorium, we were seated according to our slates and parties. Rabbi Lea Muhlstein, a Reform movement leader of global and European Jewry, had been invited to preside over the plenary. She introduced herself, stating her title and her pronouns, and was immediately boo’d by many among the ultra-orthodox parties. The noise was often deafening in the room, and Rabbi Muhlstein moved us through with poise and grace. For each resolution, she invited one “pro” speaker and one “con” speaker. While we each had some successes in our committee meetings earlier that day, our Reform Movement delegation entered this plenary session unsure about our majority. We hoped and believed that through our strategic relationship building with other parties and groups that we would have the votes we needed.
As we began voting, one resolution after another, a wave of joy and relief began to roll across our section of the room. We won vote after vote, resolution after resolution, striking down proposals that affronted our values, affirming principles that expressed who and what we stand for.
Of the many resolutions we passed that night, a few stand out:
We affirmed that we will not support resources flowing to build or settle in Gaza, the West Bank, and in particular, the E1 areas of that region. With our votes on these resolutions, we lived our values of a secure Israel, on a future path to peace.
We resolved to send resources to reopen the Egalitarian Kotel, to have greater access for all to the Western Wall. We lived our value of inclusion.
We affirmed our dedication to our Reform Movement synagogues and communities in Israel, who do not receive government funding, to receive additional resources for their security. We lived our value of pluralism.
We affirmed that the government should not restrict funding to Israeli civil society non-profits (75% of which goes toward support for Holocaust survivors!). In a free society, funding is not restricted based on the principles and positions of the non-profits. We lived our value of democracy.
We did this because of you - because of the power you gave us by sending us to Jerusalem with the largest delegation, with the most mandates. Because of the clarity of the values that you voted for and we carried through our committee meetings and the voting plenary. Because we showed up committed to righteousness, motivated by justice. Because of countless hours of organizing by the dedicated Reform movement staff and lay leaders around the country, because of the strategic, relationship-oriented approach that enabled us to arrive at the voting plenary with a strong majority.
Because you voted, because our Reform Movement arrived in Jerusalem with strength and resolve - we were successful. Your votes and our values will now shape Israel and Zionism for years to come.
Rabbi Liz P.G. Hirsch is Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Reform Judaism (WRJ), a role she has held since July 2023. WRJ is the women’s empowerment affiliate of the Union for Reform Judaism. She was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, where she was honored as a Wexner Graduate Fellow, a Tisch Fellow, and a WRJ Scholar. She completed her undergraduate education at Brown University with a degree in Environmental Studies. Rabbi Hirsch lives in Cincinnati, OH with her husband, Rabbi Neil P.G. Hirsch, and their two children. She writes frequently on social justice, spiritual practice, and trends in Jewish life.
