Eretz Hakodesh and Its Delegates Sincerely View the Jerusalem Program As Not Merely an Ideology, but a Call to Action
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Eretz Hakodesh and its delegates sincerely view the Jerusalem Program as not merely an ideology, but a Call to Action. The Jerusalem Program calls for active fulfillment of the Zionist vision. Aliyah to Israel, strengthening Israel, integration of immigrants, ensuring the future of the Jewish people through Jewish education, struggling against all manifestations of anti-Semitism and settling the country are all examples of actions to execute. It is one thing to pay lip service to these noble objectives. It is something else entirely to demonstrate the commitment, investment and self-sacrifice necessary to actualize them. It is one thing to talk the talk, and another to walk the walk. Eretz HaKodesh conducted a survey of its delegates to see how they, individually, address the Jerusalem Program. The results demonstrate an intense involvement with both Israel and the Jerusalem Program shared by few other slates. EHK candidates believe that “the unity of the Jewish people, its bond to its historic homeland Eretz Yisrael, and the centrality of the State of Israel and Jerusalem, its capital, in the life of the nation” requires neither “interpretation” nor the exclusion of parts of Judea and Samaria from our historic homeland. On the contrary, to EHK candidates that plank of the Jerusalem Program demands that we require international recognition of a united Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Nor would it suffice to say only that every EHK candidate has visited Israel. Rather: ● The majority of Eretz HaKodesh slate members have been to Israel over two dozen times (see Fig. 1). ● Two-thirds have spent the equivalent of at least two academic years living in Israel (see Fig. 2). ● Nine out of ten prays for the return to Zion and the rebuilding of Jerusalem every day, and most of the rest do so at least weekly (see Fig. 3). ● The vast majority also follow the news in Israel most every day (see Fig. 4). Similarly, Aliyah to Israel is not merely a noble thought in the minds of EHK delegates. ● Seven of ten have an immediate family member already living in Israel, or planning Aliyah, or are planning to do so themselves (see Fig. 5). ● More than one-third have both: a family member or members already in Israel, and one or more planning to move there. Only 5% have neither (see Fig. 5). ● Four out of five EHK delegates with a child over age 14 have had at least one child spend an academic year or more in Israel (see Fig.6). Besides strengthening Israel as a Jewish, Zionist and democratic state by living and studying there, as above, it is also true that: ● The vast majority of EHK candidates purchase Israeli products weekly. All do so at least monthly (see Fig. 7). ● Two-thirds have personally invested over $50,000 in Israel’s economy; nearly half, over $100,000 (see Fig. 8). When it comes to furthering Jewish, Hebrew and Zionist education. This, too, is not merely an ideological statement for EHK candidates. Jewish education is very expensive, and thus: ● Each and every EHK candidate anticipates investing over $50,000 per child on his or her Jewish education, or has done so already (see Fig. 9). ● Every child of every EHK delegate was, is, or is expected to be enrolled in full-day Jewish schooling through high school, if not seminary or yeshiva (see Fig. 10). How do we fulfill the Jerusalem Program’s mandate of “ensuring the future and the distinctiveness of the Jewish people” — if not through education? That high level of investment in Jewish education includes fluency in Hebrew. Every EHK candidate speaks at least rudimentary Hebrew (Fig. 11), and 85% could read this Response brief were it written in modern Hebrew (Fig. 12). As for defending the rights of Jews, representing the national Zionist interests, and struggling against all manifestations of anti-Semitism… for starters, every EHK delegate opposes BDS. Opposition to BDS is the baseline requirement for inclusion in the Zionist movement specified in Resolution 1.2 passed at the Zionist General Council 37/5 of October 2019 (see Ex. J). But moreover, because EHK delegates are fluent not only in Hebrew but in Jewish history, each and every EHK candidate identifies the obsessive and abominable “BDS movement” as simply the latest manifestation of the same Anti-Semitism evidenced by the Nazi boycott of 1932 (see Fig. 13). To understand the chasm separating EHK from Hatikvah in this matter, see Section II:4 — and then consider that it is EHK which Mercaz would have you believe is insufficiently Zionist to be included. And finally, settling the country is also something upon which every EHK delegate agrees. In contradistinction to the Executive Director of ARZA, Rabbi Josh Weinberg, who has committed himself to ending funding to all “settlements” (“Want to End Funding to the Settlements? Vote.” attached hereto as Ex. P), all Eretz HaKodesh candidates support building synagogues and Jewish life in all of Israel, including Judea and Samaria (see Fig. 14). Simply put, EHK’s commitment to actualizing the Jerusalem Program equals or surpasses that of any other slate on the ballot, bar none. And there is one final point that must be made: the vast majority of those uprooting themselves from their comfortable homes in the American suburbs, today, to board Nefesh b’Nefesh flights to make Aliyah to Israel, are doing so to follow the Zionist vision of Maimonides, Rav Yosef Karo, the Ba’al Shem Tov and the Vilna Gaon in the modern era. To claim that their traditional Zionism is not “Zionist enough,” as Mercaz USA wishes to do, is to claim that Zionism itself has failed, because by that definition, those making Aliyah are not Zionists! .