The WZO Election

Five years ago, Pesach Lerner started a party called Eretz Hakodesh within the World Zionist Organization, and set about convincing chareidi Jews to vote for it. In a way, we have to thank him for bringing the issue of Zionism to the fore so that gedolim around the world had the opportunity to come forward and go on the record as opposing it.

Many in the yeshiva world grow up today without a clear understanding of what Zionism is and what exactly is wrong with it. Hashkafos in this area generally don’t come from yeshiva; they come from the newspapers.  Years of reading the news without thinking deeply about it has led some to say, “What is the difference between caring about the Jews in Eretz Yisroel, and believing in the State of Israel? What is the difference between participating in Knesset elections, which some gedolim permit, and participating in the WZO elections?”

The Moetzes Gedolei Hatorah of Agudath Israel is one of those groups of gedolim who permit participating in Knesset elections. Read what they have to say about the current WZO election, and it might help you begin to understand why it’s different. This is not Satmar; this is a red line that all gedolim have always drawn.

Click here to read the responses of other gedolim.

On Wednesday Parshas Vayakhel the Roshei HaYeshiva of BMG in Lakewood called for an asifa for all bochurim and yungeleit regarding Eretz Hakodesh/WZO. It was addressed by Rav Malkiel Kotler, Rav Aharon Feldman, and Rav Yisroel Neuman. Recording can be listened to here: https://harehbetzba.com/asifa-held-in-bmg-against-eretz-hakodesh-wzo-audio-recordings/

R’ Hillel David said, when asked if it was allowed to vote, said “I don’t understand what your question is. It’s obvious, every ben Torah in the world knows. When you join, you have to make a statement. How do you become a member of the World Zionist Organization? To join, you have to make a statement that you believe in Zionism.”  

Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro, author of The Empty Wagon, a comprehensive book on Zionism, gave a three-hour long shiur in Lakewood on the topic entitled “Let’s stop the confusion: Shiur Klali on Zionism and WZO.”  

So in a way, the current campaign to join the WZO was a catalyst to bring out clarity to the public on what the gedolim really hold about Zionism. All Eretz Hakodesh can muster in response is the baseless lie that Conservative rabbis, worried about Eretz Hakodesh, funded all the Orthodox opposition to them.  

Looking at today’s newspaper ads, in the run-up to the last day of voting (today, May 4, 2025), the obviously well-funded Eretz Hakodesh claims the support of a few gedolim. One is Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky. They show a letter sent to him by Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky asking if he really supported voting in the WZO given the long tradition of our gedolim of opposing it, and given the heretical declaration one is required to make. According to Eretz Hakodesh, his brief reply at the bottom of Reb Shmuel’s letter was simply יש לעשות כנ”ל – “one should do as above” which they take to mean “join the WZO anyway.” But it could just as easily mean “one should not join the WZO as per Reb Shmuel’s arguments.” Plus, the handwriting was illegible (see here for the full story as told by Reb Shmuel’s son).

They also claim the support of Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl (a pro-settler rabbi, so not a surprise), Rabbi Avraham Gurwicz (who bases himself on the false assumption that Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky and Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetsky supported it), Rabbi Gershon Eidelstein (who retracted his support shortly before passing away) and Rabbi Asher Weiss.

Let’s start by looking at the Jerusalem Program, the declaration of principles that every voter is required to sign in order to be eligible to be a member and vote. [Source: American Zionist Organization website link https://azm.org/wzo/jerusalem-program/]

The JERUSALEM PROGRAM is the official platform of the World Zionist Organization and the global Zionist movement, having been most recently amended and adopted in February 2024, as the successor statement to the “Basel Program” of 1897 adopted at the First Zionist Congress convened by Theodor Herzl. The Jerusalem Program states that:

Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, brought about the establishment of the State of Israel, and views a Jewish, Zionist, democratic and secure State of Israel to be the expression of the common responsibility of the Jewish people for its continuity and future.

“Zionism, the national liberation movement..” – what did they liberate us from? Jews are free citizens in almost all countries around the world, able to live, work, practice Judaism, vote.

“of the Jewish people…” Really? The entire Jewish people endorsed and appointed Zionism as their liberation movement? I guess that means the Chofetz Chaim, Reb Chaim Brisker, the Minchas Elazar, all rabbanim of Germany, Poland and Russia who founded Agudah, all Hungarian rabbanim who were not part of Agudah, and their kehillos – all of them were not part of the Jewish people.

“…State of Israel to be the expression of the common responsibility of the Jewish people for its continuity and future.” Without a State of Israel, our people has no continuity? What about belief in Hashem and the Torah? If we had no state but we had the Torah, we would not have continuity and future? Hashem would not be able to ensure that the Jews survive as Jews? And if we had a state but no Torah, we would have continuity? As what? Just an ethnic group with a land, language and culture? This is what you are signing when you vote in the WZO.

Continuing…

The Jerusalem Program’s foundations of Zionism are:

• The unity of the Jewish people, its bond to its historic homeland Eretz Yisrael, and the centrality of the State of Israel and Jerusalem, its capital, in the life of the nation;
• Aliyah to Israel from all countries and the effective integration of all immigrants into Israeli society.
• Strengthening Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state and shaping it as an exemplary society with a unique moral and spiritual character, marked by mutual respect for the multi-faceted Jewish people, rooted in the vision of the prophets, striving for peace and contributing to the betterment of the world.
• Ensuring the future and the distinctiveness of the Jewish people by furthering Jewish, Hebrew and Zionist education, fostering spiritual and cultural values and teaching Hebrew as the national language;
• Nurturing mutual Jewish responsibility, defending the rights of Jews as individuals and as a nation, representing the national Zionist interests of the Jewish people, and struggling against all manifestations of anti-Semitism;
• Settling the country as an expression of practical Zionism.
• Encouraging recruitment and service in the Israel Defense Forces and the security forces and strengthening them as the protective force of the Jewish people living in Zion, as well as encouraging full National Service for anyone exempted in law from service in the IDF.

So in summary, whoever signs this is declaring that he wants to educate everyone to be Zionist, to make aliyah and join the IDF. And he wants all immigrants to be “integrated into Israeli society” – whatever that means. This is much worse that the oath of office taken by Knesset members in which they pledge to be loyal to the laws of the state – which the religious parties permitted themselves to do because they supposedly have in mind the laws of the Torah relating to Eretz Yisroel. Here, every single voter is taking the pledge, and the language is much more unequivocal.

If you think about it, the whole concept of WZO is strange. How are people who are not citizens of a country allowed to determine the policies of that country? Maybe you’ll say because they’re contributing money. Of course, here in America, if some foreigner gave a big donation to a politician and then asked for some policy change in return, that would be called corruption. They would put the politician on trial. But perhaps the State of Israel doesn’t view that as corrupt. Now, that might make a little sense if they people giving the biggest donations were allowed to have the biggest say in determining policy. After all, a big donor to a yeshiva can ask that his money be used for a new dining hall. But here every Jew in America has an equal vote in the WZO even if he didn’t contribute any money. Just by virtue of his being Jewish, he can claim Israel as his country in a sense and have a right to vote for its policies. Thus, the very existence of the WZO underscores the idea that the State of Israel is the country of all Jews.

There are those who say Hallel on Yom Haatzmaut and wave the Israeli flag. These people are probably already in the WZO and they are not the ones targeted in this Eretz Hakodesh campaign. Rather, the targets are what they call “chareidim” – bnei Torah, Jews who have historically not been Zionists, but who might believe that once the state exists, we have to make it a more frum place, or at least save it from those bent on further secularizing it.  And this brings us to the future.

What should we hope for the future? A religious state of Israel still violates the Three Oaths. It still continues to involve Jews in conflict. In the current war alone, since the beginning of ground operations in the Gaza Strip on October 27, 2023, 412 soldiers have fallen in combat. That doesn’t include the hundreds killed on October 7, 2023.

Some will say, true, we shouldn’t have any state at all, but how do you accomplish that safely? These people have a good point, except then they shouldn’t encourage visiting or aliyah. There should be no “vacations to Israel.”  These people should stop using for their own convenience something that is essentially a giant aveirah that has landed the Jewish people in deep trouble. Instead, we should all work together on ways to solve the problem.