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This Passover, Vote in the World Zionist Congress Election
People stand next to flags on the day the bodies of deceased Israeli hostages, Oded Lifschitz, Shiri Bibas, and her two children Kfir and Ariel Bibas, who were kidnapped during the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, are handed over under the terms of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad
It was said that the early Zionist activist Nachum Sokolow was fluent in 70 languages — all of them Yiddish. It was a joke, of course. But like all good Jewish jokes, it hid a deeper truth.
Sokolow, one of the forgotten giants of the early Zionist movement, really was a linguistic marvel. Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish, Spanish, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, German, and English — he wrote and spoke them all fluently. In an age before Google Translate, Sokolow was Google Translate. But every language he spoke had a singular purpose: advancing the cause of Jewish nationalism.
Sokolow put his linguistic wizardry to remarkable use. In 1917, in a now barely remembered triumph of early Zionist diplomacy, just months before the Balfour Declaration was signed, Sokolow pulled off one of the most improbable coups in Jewish history: he secured a letter of support for Zionism from the Vatican.
As the representative of the World Zionist Organization (WZO), Sokolow met with Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, the Pope’s Secretary of State, and made the case for Jewish return to the Land of Israel. Somehow — perhaps with a dash of Latin and a well-timed Biblical reference or two — Sokolow won the Cardinal over.
Soon afterward, the Vatican issued a letter expressing sympathy for Jewish national aspirations in Palestine. When asked later how Sokolow had managed such a diplomatic miracle, one Vatican insider quipped: “He made it sound like Zionism was a branch of Catholicism.”
Sokolow described the encounter in his memoir: “The Cardinal Secretary of State received me very courteously … He told me that the aspirations of the Jewish people for a national home in Palestine were understandable and natural, and that the Holy See would not oppose any measures that might be taken to realize them.”
He was right. On May 4, 1917, Pope Benedict XV described the return of the Jews to the Holy and as “providential — God has willed it.”
The Vatican’s support came just months before the Balfour Declaration, and Sokolow, together with Chaim Weizmann, used it to show Great Britain and the Allies that Zionism had moral backing that extended beyond the Jewish world.
So while the Vatican’s letter didn’t make headlines the way Balfour’s letter did, it played a subtle but significant role in paving the way for the eventual creation of the State of Israel.
There’s something wonderful about that story. It reminds us that even in the darkest, most complex times, a few words — spoken in the right tone, in the right room, by the right person — can change the course of history.
Which brings me to today — and to the action you can take, specifically through the WZO and the vital work it continues to do for the Jewish people in Israel and across the globe.
I’m not sure if you’ve ever voted in a WZO election — or even knew such elections existed. But if you care about the Jewish future, about Israel, and about Jewish education and continuity, then the WZO ballot should matter to you. Every five years, Jews in the Diaspora get a rare opportunity to directly influence the course of Jewish history — just like Nahum Sokolow did — by voting in the WZO elections.
It’s not a national election, and there are no political parties in the usual sense. But the stakes are high. This is the mechanism through which hundreds of millions of dollars are allocated to organizations that educate, inspire, and strengthen the Jewish people’s connection to Israel. It’s the closest thing we have to a global Jewish “town hall” — and your voice is needed now more than ever.
And it’s especially fitting that this election is taking place as we approach Pesach and over Pesach — the festival of redemption. Because Pesach was not only about leaving Egypt. It was also about entering Eretz Yisrael.
When God appeared to Moshe in Egypt and renewed the covenant made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God didn’t just promise liberation — He promised a destination: וְהוֹצֵאתִי אֶתְכֶם מִתַּחַת סִבְלוֹת מִצְרַיִם… וְהֵבֵאתִי אֶתְכֶם אֶל הָאָרֶץ – “I will take you out from under the burdens of Egypt … and I will bring you to the Land” (Ex. 6:6–8).
The Exodus was never meant to be an end in itself. It was the beginning of something far more significant. A promise fulfilled. The entire purpose was to ensure that the Jewish people would make it to the Promised Land — and live there as a free nation under God. The question is: Do we still believe in that promise? Do we live it? Do we teach it? Do we defend it?
Some might say: But we live in the United States — or France, or Australia, or the UK. Why should we have a say in what happens in Israel?
The answer is simple: because Israel belongs to all Jews, not just those who live within its borders. It is our shared inheritance. Our shared story. Our shared destiny. The WZO election is one of the few formal mechanisms through which Diaspora Jews get a voice in shaping that destiny.
And if ever that connection felt distant, October 7th made it devastatingly clear: we are all in this together. It didn’t matter whether you were in Ashkelon or Atlanta, Jerusalem, or New York: the grief was universal, the fear was shared, and the resolve that followed — the unshakable determination to stand with our brothers and sisters in Israel — proved once again that Am Yisrael is one family. One body. One soul.
The WZO allocates funds to Zionist education, aliyah programs, youth movements, Hebrew language initiatives, and efforts to build bridges between Jews around the world and their ancestral homeland. But those funds don’t float in a vacuum. They are guided by the values and policies of those elected to its governing bodies. That’s why it matters who’s at the table. And that’s why your vote matters.
In the face of rising antisemitism, growing global pressure on Israel, and relentless efforts to distort the moral clarity of Zionism into something shameful, we cannot afford to stay silent. We must not retreat from our principles. We must not apologize for our identity or our inheritance.
The WZO ballot is one meaningful way to act. It may not feel as dramatic as crossing the Red Sea, but it’s how we stand tall and say: We are here. We are proud. And we will not yield our place in history, or our voice in the present.
This Pesach, as we sit around our seder tables and recount our miraculous journey from slavery to freedom, let’s also remember that our freedom was always tied to a destination: the Land of Israel. Voting in the WZO election is a small but powerful affirmation that we still believe in that destination — and in the destiny it represents.
לשנה הבאה בירושלים — Next year in Jerusalem. But this year — make your voice count. To vote in the WZO elections, use this link: https://www.votezoacoalition.org/
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
The post This Passover, Vote in the World Zionist Congress Election first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.