Building the Israel of our Aspirations-WZO Elections

WZO ELECTIONS 2025 –THE STORY OF HOLON
Senior Rabbi Angela W. Buchdahl

Holon is a coastal city just south of Tel Aviv
primarily known for its large industrial zone.
Founded in the late 1920’s, it is now Israel’s 10th largest city, with a population
of 200,000 representing all segments of Israeli society living together:
Mizrachi, Ashkeanzi, and Sephardi Jews, Arab citizens,
Ultra Orthodox and secular, every political party
and some stray Tel Aviv runaways amidst a strong working class base.

It may not surprise you that there are over 80 Orthodox synagogues in Holon,
in publicly funded buildings with state paid rabbis –
after all Israel is a Jewish state and there is no church/state separation.
But it should surprise you that there is not ONE liberal synagogue in the city.

Perhaps, you think–the people of Holon just don’t want that kind of Judaism!
That’s what people told Reform Rabbi Galit Cohen-Kedem
15 years ago when she wanted to start a community –
they said this is not the Anglo, upper-middle-class community
that would be attracted to Reform.
Nevertheless, she began Kehillat Kodesh Vechol with 4-5 people
in her living room, just doing what the Torah called her to do:
first with joyful, music-filled shabbat services, lifecycles and educating children. But also having people cook for mothers who had just given birth,
or people sitting shiva.
Helping small businesses get off the ground,
and making shidduchs, matching couples.

The community grew and grew over the past 15 years,
and now has 230 dues-paying families,
which is particularly impressive because Israelis are not accustomed to
paying dues in a state which completely funds Orthodox synagogues and rabbis. But 230 families undersells the Kehillah’s reach
as they serve thousands of residents a year in some way–
whether through the 3 kindergartens they run, their vibrant youth movement,
or their Bnei mitzvah classes.

And they’ve grown all of this with ZERO infrastructure–
the community still has no building and the rabbi works part time,
She said they run on pioneer energy –doing services in parks,
and renting rooms in schools and gyms like a start-up.

The Kehillah represents the diversity of Holon with a majority Mizrachi Jews,
but also new immigrants from Russia and Ukraine, some gay and lesbian and single parent families, most of them living paycheck to paycheck. Over the last year, 136 families in the Kehillah struggled with a parent away on reserve duty, or their small businesses collapsing. This community represents an Israel that has been hard hit by the war even though they are not in the South or the North.

When I asked Rabbi Cohen Kedem how she grew her community from nothing, with nothing–she said: “I knew Israeli Judaism had to address the core existential issue we are facing – which is the alienation and breaking of society. People no longer feel like they are part of a bigger people, a greater story. I don't ask if they are Reform and I don’t care. They are coming to us because you can come here as you are, and it's joyful and you’re inspired. And we need you, and you can be part of something. You feel less hopeless in the Middle East. People come to find others who are like-minded. And also some who you don’t agree with at all– but you still like each other because you serve others together.”

Sounds a lot like the Judaism we want to see in the world, and the kind of Judaism we want to support.

11 years ago, this Kehillah filed a request for land allocation for an egalitarian community center and synagogue – the first in Holon. For 7 years the government deliberately ignored their request. So in 2020 the Israeli Religious Action Center, the legal arm of the Reform movement, filed a petition and won a ruling that Holon must give them the land – and the municipality finally allocated it in December 2023.

But 2 months later, a new right-wing mayor was elected, one who had been publicly vocal about his abhorrence of Reform Jews. He called us Yehudenim, “tiny insect Jews” –a term coined by the Nazis. And when I say us–he wasn’t just talking about Reform Jews in Israel. In 2021, he posted this choice tweet about Central Synagogue: “The Rabbi of a congregation in New York, the largest Reform Synagogue in the world, she is the daughter of a Filipino mother. The rabbi herself is not even Jewish!” Despite the Court order, this new mayor cancelled the land allocation for the Reform congregation.

How did a mayor like this get elected? I asked Rabbi Cohen Kedem.
She said the liberal/moderate majority split their votes among 3 candidates, while the right wing picked a single candidate and Haredi and right wing rabbis
told their people to vote – and they all vote according to their rebbe.
She said, We would have won if we put our small differences aside and unified.

Why am I telling you this story tonight? Because there is something all of you,
and all of YOU! (point to livestreamers) can do about this.
You can vote.
You can’t vote in Holon’s municipal elections.
But you can vote in the election of the oldest Jewish parliament:
The World Zionist Congress.
And this directly impacts this small congregation in Holon,
as well as the Jewish values we want to support in Israel.

This is the first World Zionist Congress of 1897, held in Basel Switzerland. Convened by Theodore Herzl. This august body of 200 delegates, representing Jewish communities from 17 different countries,
set an audacious goal of the establishment of a Jewish homeland
and set up funds to support it.

And for over 125 years, every 5 years, every Jewish adult in the world
can vote for their representative to this gathering, now held in Jerusalem,
and have a voice in the priorities of our Jewish state.
About a third of the 500 delegates to this Congress
will come from the American Jewish community.

This year, I am honored to be the #2 name on the Vote Reform slate
so I am asking for your vote
to send me to the Parliament of the Jewish people in October.

If you want to know why your vote matters, you should know this Congress
will allocate $5Billion dollars of philanthropic money for the next 5 years.
30% of Rabbi Cohen-Kedem’s salary was paid for by allocations set by the last World Zionist Congress.
When I go to represent you, I will vote to allocate these funds for the flourishing of Jewish life like Holon and our priorities for the Jewish people.

There are 21 different American slates.
ost of them represent some brand of ‘liberal’ values.
But the few very traditional ones – they are voting, as their rebbe tells them –
in a block.

Now I am not the kind of rabbi who will instruct you how you must vote.
But I will tell you that if you feel any stake in the future of Israel,
it is your responsibility to vote. This is the only vote you get to shape Israel.
And a powerful Reform vote will not only send me and other Reform leaders
to represent you in the World Zionist Congress,
it will send a strong message to Israeli leaders, like the Mayor of Holon,
that American Jews care about the soul of the Jewish state.

There were only 30K votes cast by all American Jews five years ago.
There are more than 30K people in this room and on our livestream tonight
in Central’s extended community.
Every vote counts! And together we can be very powerful.
If every one of you Vote Reform, you will help ensure
that we build an Israel that lives up to its own aspirations
stated in the declaration of Independence:
to foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel;
and ensure complete equality of social and political rights
and guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.

Vote Reform to make it so.

If you are further inspired (beyond voting) to help the Holon Reform Congregation (Kehillat Kodesh V’Chol) get their building and help them grow, please donate to them directly at https://kodeshvechol.com/2022/12/05/donate/