Around-the-clock efforts at the 33rd Zionist Congress to achieve a unified position on religious pluralism failed here last week, and the worldwide gathering ended with the adoption of a resolution that Orthodox delegates could not support.
The battle was a defeat for Jewish unity but a victory for delegates representing the Reform and Conservative movements, which have been trying to win official status and recognition in Israel.
The congress also ended with no resolution on two contested Jewish Agency posts: treasurer and chairman of the newly created Education Department. Candidates for those posts were not officially put forward.
Under the Jewish Agency bylaws, Diaspora Jewish leaders have the power to veto the Zionist Congress’ choices for Jewish Agency chairman and treasurer, and they have the right to “consult” on those selected for the department chairmanships.
These consultations, involving leaders of the United Israel Appeal, Keren Hayesod and the Jewish Agency Board of Governors, are now expected to take place during the next few weeks.
The current chairman, Avraham Burg of the Labor Party, was elected to continue in his post for another two years.
He will be succeeded for the following two years by Salai Meridor of Likud.
On the religious pluralism resolution, marathon negotiations on a compromise draft that began Dec. 24 and continued late into the following night ultimately failed to secure the support of the Mizrachi Orthodox delegation.
But given the large representation at the congress of the Reform and Conservative delegates, the resolution passed the congress easily.
The resolution, penned by Burg, states that the congress, “out of deep concern for the unity of the Jewish people, calls on the leadership of the religious streams of Judaism in Israel and the Diaspora to cooperate with the Israeli government to guarantee the success” of a special committee headed by Finance Minister Ya’acov Ne’eman.
That committee has been working for months to try to achieve a compromise regarding the status of Reform and Conservative rabbis in Israel, who currently have no authority to perform conversions to Judaism, marriages or funerals.
The resolution further states that if the committee fails to solve these “painful questions,” the Israeli government should not allow any change to the Law of Return and any other legislation on religious affairs unless done with “wide approval and by bearing in mind the support of all parts of the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora.”
The Law of Return grants automatic citizenship to any Jewish immigrant. Orthodox forces have tried to amend the law so that it includes a traditional, halachic definition of who is a Jew.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Reform movement’s Union of American Hebrew Congregations, was quoted as telling Reform delegates after the vote on the resolution that “if we had lost the vote, it would have been used as proof positive that our movement and our issues in Israel did not enjoy the support of Diaspora Jewry. But clearly, that was not the case.”
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