Budget shortfall forces World Zionist Organization officials to cancel elections

A crippling financial shortfall prompted World Zionist Organization officials this week to cancel the body's elections for the first time since 1980, Anglo File has learned. Leading officials of the world's oldest Zionist body said the move "severely compromises" democratic values, but others disagreed.

The World Zionist Congress - the 580-member parliament of the WZO - comprises delegations from various countries, which vote every four years on the identity of non-salaried delegates from across the Jewish and Zionist spectrum.

But the 2010 vote scheduled for this month was suspended because the WZO - an international entity which promotes Zionism worldwide - doesn't have the hundreds of thousands of dollars needed for the vote. Instead of elections, the delegations will reach an internal compromise.

"It is unthinkable for parliamentarians to skip elections and work out power-sharing amongst themselves," said MK Zevulun Orlev (Habayit Hayehudi) who serves as president of the World Mizrahi Movement - a very strong player within WZO. "We oppose this election freeze very strongly because it severely compromises democratic values and procedures."

David Breakstone, the United States-born head of WZO's Department for Zionist Activities, said the elections have been replaced by a "democratic procedure." Breakstone, who immigrated to Israel in 1974, explained the WZO charter allows for postponing elections if all country delegations submit a single, agreed-upon roster.

But not all country delegates have accepted the solution favored by Breakstone. Hagai Merom, WZO treasurer, said British, French and Mexican delegations are still on the fence.

In June, the Zionist Congress is scheduled to elect a WZO chairman. The organization has been without a head for the past few months since it split from the Jewish Agency.

Orlev said the freezing of the congressional elections might harm the democratic value of the chairman election. One of the leading candidates for the race is Rabbi Michael Melchior, who is endorsed by Kadima, which holds the chairmanship under the previous WZO congressional election. The World Mizrachi Movement oppose his nomination.

Melchior says he is not "in the loop" as far as WZO politics go. "I sometimes can't believe the mean-spirited, petty politics that go on inside that body," he said.

Breakstone noted that results from past congressional elections varied only slightly, with no dramatic differences in the distribution of votes between one election and the next. "Elections place a huge financial burden on the WZO. Under the present circumstances, we needed to balance our commitment to democracy with an unconscionable expense."

Karma Feinstein Cohen, the New Jersey-born executive director of traditional Zionist movement World Magshimey Herut, added that the solution favored by Breakstone "reprioritized expenditure, freeing up more funds which would have gone to functional processes for actual Zionist activities."

According to Feinstein Cohen, the financial crisis at the WZO - which has an annual budget of $13 million - is the result of a series of cutbacks undertaken by its main funding body, the Jewish Agency. The Jewish National Fund also funds the WZO. Over the past decade, the WZO's budget dropped by a few million dollars, she said.

U.K.-born Martin Stern, a senior member of the WZO finance committee and a former audit committee member, said the WZO's solution was "semi democratic," but there was simply no money for elections.

He identified the June 2009 decision to split the WZO from the Jewish Agency - spearheaded by American donors seeking to weaken the influence of Israeli politicians within the Jewish Agency - as the reason for the budget shortfall. He said the WZO used to receive additional funding for congressional elections.

"The WZO, which gave birth to both the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund, is living on borrowed time," Stern said. "Now its children have divorced the parent, and can slash funding at will."

Over the years, there have been calls by prominent figures - including former Jewish Theological Seminary chancellor Ismar Schorsch - to dismantle the WZO for "inactivity" and "outdatedness."

A source familiar with the joint operation of the Jewish Agency and the WZO said: "The WZO have very expensive property in Jerusalem which are worth a lot of money in rent, and are budgeted by the Jewish Agency on top of that."