We now have the preliminary, uncertified results of the election of delegates to the 38th World Zionist Congress in which you recently participated. 

Thanks to you and the outreach you did among your congregation, family, and friends, MERCAZ, the Conservative movement’s official slate, significantly increased its number of votes from previous elections. MERCAZ went from 9,850 votes in 2015 to 14,666 votes in this current election. That is an increase of almost 50%! As a result of our efforts as a movement, we can now point with pride to the growing concern for religious pluralism, progress and equality in Israel among US Conservative Jews. There is no doubt that we care.

While our numbers increased, the overall number of votes increased by 118%. This was quite unprecedented and reflected aggressive campaigns by many existing slates as well as five new slates. 

The total 2020 US World Zionist Congress Election preliminary vote count is 123,629 with the following distribution:

  • Vote Reform: 31,500
  • Orthodox Israel Coalition – Mizrachi: 21,698
  • Eretz Hakodesh: 20,023
  • MERCAZ USA: 14,666
  • ZOA Coalition: 10,313
  • American Forum for Israel: 8,132
  • Hatikvah: 7,932
  • Shas Olami: 2,046
  • Kol Yisrael: 1,752
  • Dorshei Torah V’Tziyon: 1,373
  • Herut Zionists: 1,157
  • Vision: 1,036
  • Americans4Israel: 857
  • Israel Shelanu: 769
  • Ohavei Zion: 375

There will be many critical issues on the table when the Congress convenes in October 2020. We look forward to being able to achieve many of our goals by working in coalition with other groups that share our vision for promoting a pluralistic, democratic, progressive vision in Israel and around the world. Thanks to you, MERCAZ will be sending a strong slate of delegates to represent our values at the Congress.

We will be back in touch with more details about the Congress later in the year. In the meantime, continued thanks for all the good work you did to turn out the vote and make sure our voice is heard in the upcoming World Zionist Congress.

Many thanks,
Marilyn Wind, President

Sarrae G. Crane, Executive Director