Schindler Charges Arza Was Denied Proportional Representation at the 30th World Zionist Congress

Rabbi Alexander Schindler, a leader of Reform Judaism in the United States, charged here today that the Zionist arm of the American Reform movement, ARZA, was denied representation at the 30th World Zionist Congress in proportion to its numerical strength.

Schindler, who is president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, said at a press conference that the Zionist establishment, determined to hold on to its political power, was deliberately keeping out new groups that want to be part of it. He noted that since the last Zionist Congress in 1978, ARZA membership grew by 700 percent — from 9,000 to over 68,000 — but the number of mandates they received was up only 55 percent.

Even so, Schindler said, the American Reform movement did better than its British affiliate and MERKAZ, the Zionist organization of Conservative Judaism in the U.S., which were denied any representation at the Congress. This was due to high-handed political machination, he charged.

He insisted that basic changes in the organization of the World Zionist movement were a “must” to make it more democratic. The present leadership, he said “are magnificent sloganeers. They tell us that they want to develop new Zionists all over the world from every stream of Jewish life. But they refuse to open the door to new Zionists and they put obstacles in their way, ” Schindler declared.