Special Interview Zionist Membership Drive Resumes

Zionist federations all over the world are currently embarking on a renewed membership drive, with the ultimate hope of registering more than one million diaspora Jews as committed Zionists, pledged to uphold the “Jerusalem Program” which includes among its five principles the centrality of Israel.

The drive is the first stage in the World Zionist Organization’s preparations for the World Zionist Congress, now scheduled for February, 1978. It had been launched in some countries last year, when the Congress was set for February, 1977. But after the Zionist “Supreme Court” ruled that elections for the Congress must be held in every country and cannot be circumvented by agreements between the parties, the movement as a whole realized that an all embracing and much more energetic drive would have to be held.

In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Avraham Shenker, head of the WZO information and organization department, observed that the court decision is being turned from a drawback into a springboard for action. He explained that last year’s drive, even in the countries where it had gotten under way, was a fairly half-heated affair because most national federations hoped to send an agreed slate of delegates to the Congress, without holding elections. Shenker himself, and Mapam, of which he is a member, always opposed the majority decision enabling elections to be circumvented–and he was therefore pleased at the court’s ruling.

4 CHANNELS FOR MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

Discussing how the membership campaign will be conducted, Shenker explained that there are four main channels: one is for ongoing Zionist activities, such as Independence Day or Jerusalem Day events, to be used by local leaders and activists as campaigning opportunities to enlist new members to the Zionist movement and to ensure that old members renew their membership and pay their dues.

Another is to have the “world organizations” (the parties) conduct their own membership campaigns, assuming, with good reason, that people who join the WZO through one of the parties will give their support to that party in the voting for Congress delegations. An individual, Shenker explained, can become a member of the Zionist organization either by joining his national federation directly or by joining a Zionist “world organization” (party). In each case he/she must pay dues and sign the “Jerusalem Program.”

The third channel is the various Jewish nonparty organizations that have joined the WZO in recent years: Maccabi, the World Sephardi Union, the Reform Synagogue Movement. Their individual members have not automatically become members of the Zionist movement, and Shenker hopes the leaders of these organizations will encourage the rank and file to join the Zionist movement–if they have not done so already.

He said there has already been notable success among the branches of the Sephardi Union. In Argentina, France and Canada, for instance, the Sephardim will be putting up their own slates for the Congress elections in the fall. Lastly, the membership drive is channeled through the youth movements and young adult organizations.

NOTES SEVERAL INNOVATIONS

One new departure, Shenker reported, has occurred in Belgium, where leaders of the United Jewish Appeal campaign have specifically decided to encourage members to join the local Zionist federation. While the old generation of fund-raisers around the world felt in the main that their giving was in itself a sufficient expression of commitment, the rising generation is seeking other channels in which to be active–and the Zionist movement can supply those channels, Shenker observed.

The drive, he said, is under way in 40 countries. Elections will be held in 28 countries. Some of the others are too small for elections, and in some, local conditions do not permit elections.

The WZO’s organization chief says he is sure the elections will produce a much younger Congress than ever before–and the changes will certainly be reflected in the new Zionist Executive, too, both among its Israeli and its diaspora members. Another new departure in this Congress will be the participation of the representatives of the newly affiliated organizations–Reform, Sephardim, Maccabi. They will account, Shenker says, for at least 100 of the 650 delegates.

Israeli delegates will be chosen on the basis of the party key in Israel–and presumably the upcoming elections here, too, will wreak their changes in the composition of the Zionist conference contingent. Israelis account for 38 percent of the delegates to the Congress, the U.S. accounts for 29 percent. In the Israeli contingent, for the first time, there will presumably be a sizeable representation of Yigal Yadin’s new Democratic Movement for Change which might well lobby for changes in the Zionist movement as well as in the government.