At the Zionist movement’s main international gathering in Jerusalem on Tuesday, an Orthodox rabbi from California watched quietly as dozens of Progressive Jews protested Israel’s war in Gaza.

Then, turning to one of the demonstrators, he said with friendly candor: “I don’t believe in making peace with someone who wants to kill you.”

The brief exchange between Rabbi David Eliezrie and a protester affiliated with the Reform Movement’s Arzenu faction took place on the sidelines of the World Zionist Congress, the main democratic gathering of the World Zionist Organization and the first to take place in person in a decade.

It encapsulated the deep ideological rifts that continue to divide the Zionist movement, and which were on full display during the kickoff of the three-day democratic assembly.

Delegates from Jewish communities in dozens of countries gathered to debate and vote on the priorities of the 128-year-old WZO, the body that laid the foundations for Israel’s modern institutions. They also determine how to allocate the Organization’s $1 billion budget—a purse that makes the WZO a key vehicle for Diaspora Jewry to influence Israeli policy and society.

Yet for Eliezrie, an author and scholar of his Chabad-Lubavitch history, the moment underscored what he views as the Congress’s greatest strength: bringing together Zionists from competing ideological streams to hammer out policy democratically, despite their vast differences.

“It’s an opportunity, which is becoming increasingly rare, for doing this kind of work amicably and respectfully—to debate issues and worldviews,” he told JNS. “I may disagree [with the protesters], but I welcome them speaking their minds.” Living in California, he added, “I’m used to being surrounded by people who disagree with me.”

A celebration of pluralism

Israeli President Isaac Herzog echoed that sentiment in his address to the hundreds of delegates and participants at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center for the 39th World Zionist Congress.

Theodor Herzl, Herzog reminded them, had created the WZO, “knowing it would have fierce disagreements. And [yet] here you sit, representing all streams and movements, just like in the days of the very first congresses.”

That ability to unite, Herzog said, is especially crucial at a time when expressions of antisemitism are surging worldwide following the war that erupted on Oct. 7, 2023, between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and that has since drawn in Iran, Hezbollah and the Houthis in Yemen.

Herzog focused on the term “Zios,” a new slur for Zionists, particularly on Western university campuses, which he called a thinly veiled modern pejorative for Jews.

“Those who once called us ‘Yids’ or ‘kikes’ now call us ‘Zios’,” he said. “These ‘Zios’ are us—the men and women in this hall, across Israel and throughout the Jewish world.”

Record participation

Despite, or perhaps because of, the current explosion of antisemitism, this year’s Congress drew representatives from the highest-ever number of countries: around 40, compared to 30 in the previous in-person Congress, according to the WZO.

It also featured the largest-ever U.S. delegation: 155 delegates and about 100 other participants, including Eliezrie, who attended as a Jewish Agency for Israel board member and as an observer to strengthen ties between his nonpartisan Chabad-Lubavitch movement and other global Jewish bodies.

Spanning ages 18 to 87, the American delegation represented 22 states and included 75 rabbis from diverse denominations, along with elected officials, educators, and community leaders.

Diaspora concerns deepen

The surge of antisemitism on U.S. campuses and beyond has changed how Herbert Block, executive director of the American Zionist Movement (AZM, the framework of the U.S. delegation to the WZO), views his own country.

“Yes, definitely,” Block said when asked if Oct. 7 had altered his perception of the U.S. “You can’t assume we’re coasting. You have to be more vigilant, hold elected officials accountable. It even affects how Israel is now a dominant issue in the New York mayoral election.”

Block came to the event wearing an eye-catching, Israel-themed baseball uniform whose player number read, “Herzl 97,” a reference to the WZO’s establishment in 1897 by the Viennese visionary widely regarded as the conceptual architect of the State of Israel.

Block said he “never imagined” that a figure such as Zohran Mamdani —a far-left populist and anti-Israel activist who has compared the intifada to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising—could become the leading candidate in that race.

“I think a lot more people are asking: Is it still the Golden Medina? Is everything as great as we thought it was? America is still a great country; it’s been very welcoming to Jews, and Jewish life there is amazing. But many people are becoming more on guard,” he said.

In 2024, the Anti-Defamation League recorded 9,354 antisemitic incidents in the U.S. compared to 8,873 the previous year and 3,697 the year before that.

Similar concerns are emerging elsewhere. Gerardo Stuczynski, a WZO delegate from Uruguay and a former leader of that country’s Jewish community, told JNS that many Uruguayan Jews are struggling with a new sense of insecurity.

“Uruguay was a sanctuary from the antisemitism more common in neighboring countries like Chile and Brazil,” he said. “We thought we were different. But then Oct. 7 happened and a wave of hatred washed over us—over the media, over society. Incidents exploded, and it’s changed the basic feeling of safety.”

The stakes for Israel and the Diaspora

Against this backdrop, the importance of a viable Israel has grown in the eyes of many Diaspora Jews, several participants noted, raising the stakes at this year’s Congress, which Block described as Diaspora Jewry’s “best avenue” for having a say in what happens in Israel.

WZO funds spent in Israel come from its longstanding reserves and from donations raised through Jewish Federations in North America, Keren Hayesod campaigns worldwide, and direct contributions.

The money supports a range of national projects, from rebuilding Israel’s war-ravaged north and Tekuma regions to educational initiatives for vulnerable populations, including Ethiopian Jews and Arab Israelis.

The 525 delegates are divided roughly equally between Israel (according to the political balance in Israel’s Knesset elections), the United States’ American Zionist Movement and the rest of Diaspora Jewry.

The WZO is one of four intertwined bodies collectively known as the National Institutions of the Jewish People, alongside the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Jewish National Fund (JNF-KKL) and Keren Hayesod–United Israel Appeal (KH/UIA).

Shifting power in the WZO

In recent years, the WZO’s reach has expanded to new demographics within the Jewish world, notably through Eretz Hakodesh, a Haredi-led movement that entered the fray in 2020 and won 19 seats in this year’s elections to the World Zionist Congress. These elections determine the makeup of delegates who vote on policy and budgets during the Congress itself.

Haredi movements such as Eretz Hakodesh have leveraged high turnout, often driven by rabbinic endorsement, to achieve an unprecedented share of influence within a body they once avoided.

Together with the Modern Orthodox Mizrachi movement, the conservative bloc now holds a majority within the American delegation, ending decades of Progressive dominance. Rabbi Pesach Lerner, chairman of Eretz Hakodesh, called this shift an “overdue correction.”

The Reform and other liberals “had realized they had little input on the Israeli scene, no clout here,” Lerner told JNS. The World Zionist Organization elections, he said, became their “back door: They used that to gain more influence, inserting their philosophies and agendas into the system.”

Lerner cited one case in particular—a 2019 petition by the Reform Movement-affiliated Israel Religious Action Center (IRAC) to Israel’s Supreme Court seeking to limit Haredi rabbis’ ability to offer kosher phones that blocked certain content and hotlines, including one for homosexuals.

“It got to a point where a bunch of us in America said: ‘Wait a second, we have every right to be there as much as they do. So we’re not giving them a free hand anymore,’” he said.

The impact of the shift that Lerner celebrated will be measured, among other things, in WZO votes during Congress on several draft resolutions, including on strengthening Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria (filed by conservatives) and “Halting the Expansion of Settlements in the E1” corridor, filed by liberals.

In between plenary sessions and lectures, which included talks on women in Zionism and Zionism on social media, Stuczynski from Uruguay said that, in his eyes, “the political stuff” and even the fight against antisemitism paled in comparison to his main issue of focus: Nurturing young leadership.

“There’s no shortage of crucial and challenging topics to work on over here,” he said. And, following delays such as the COVID-19 epidemic that had prevented in-person Congresses for a decade, he added, “it’s just so great to finally meet and do this work shoulder to shoulder.”

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