The World Zionist Congress is meant to convene approximately every five years to unite Jews around a shared Zionist vision – one rooted in Herzl’s dream of the Jewish people’s self-determination, and the collective strength of Israel and the Diaspora. It should be a forum for solidarity, not political theater.
My organization, Hasbara Fellowships, mobilized our student leaders to rally thousands of votes as part of the Aish Ha’am slate for this congress. We joined forces with friends from StandWithUs, the Zionist Organization of America, Aish, and social media activists Lizzy Savetsky, Ari Ackerman, and Shabbos Kestenbaum. Together, we came to champion causes that transcend factional lines: confronting campus antisemitism, ensuring Jewish students feel safe and supported, and securing resources for IDF soldiers coping with PTSD.
We didn’t come to argue about borders or settlements. We came to strengthen Jewish unity.
Our resolutions reflected that purpose. We believed that in 2025 – after the trauma of October 7 and amid the antisemitic surge on campuses worldwide – no one could object to calls for greater campus security funding or to initiatives supporting Israel’s veterans. These were not partisan issues. They were Jewish priorities – moral imperatives that should have united the Congress floor.
Division instead of unity
Yet, instead of the unity we hoped for, we witnessed disruption.
Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder of J Street, used his platform at the congress not to stand with the Jewish people in a moment of solidarity but to push divisive political resolutions about the theoretical resettlement of Gaza and to advance the narrative that building new Jewish suburbs in Judea and Samaria is somehow the cause of Hamas’s antisemitism and the broader Middle East conflict.
It was breathtakingly out of place – an attempt to import the most polarizing debates of Israeli politics into what should have been a unifying Zionist gathering.
That’s not leadership. That’s sabotage.
Soros funding
The World Zionist Congress is not the Knesset. Its purpose is not to dictate Israel’s security policy or debate its borders. Its mandate is to bring together Jews from around the world to support the State of Israel and the Jewish people – to fund schools, youth movements, Jewish education, aliyah programs, and solidarity initiatives. When delegates hijack that platform to score ideological points, they betray the very essence of Zionism.
Even more troubling is who was doing the hijacking. J Street’s funding is heavily backed by George Soros – a man whose philanthropic empire has underwritten causes that delegitimize Israel and embolden its detractors. Soros-funded organizations have accused Israel of apartheid and lobbied against US aid to the Jewish state. For an organization dependent on his support to sit at the World Zionist Congress – an institution founded to realize Herzl’s dream of Jewish national revival – is an insult to that legacy.
And we know what will happen next. J Street will no doubt use Ben-Ami’s participation as a delegate to legitimize itself in Washington. They will point to his seat at the WZC as proof that he represents the “mainstream Jewish community” while lobbying American leaders to distance themselves from Israel, to question its defensive actions, to constrain its sovereignty, and to weaken its alliances. In other words, the very stage meant to unite Jews will now be cited to divide them.
Creating redlines
There must be redlines. Zionism cannot be an umbrella so wide that it shelters those who work to weaken it. A movement funded by anti-Zionist donors has no place defining Zionist priorities. The World Zionist Organization must enforce standards of participation. Those who do not affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state are not invited to participate. Those whose funders do not affirm Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state should not be invited back either.
The congress was meant to be about unity. Instead, we were forced to defend Zionism from within its own tent.
Despite the noise, we refused to be distracted. We continued to advocate for campus support and for IDF mental health funding. We reminded our fellow delegates that the real threats to Jewish life are not theoretical; they are happening on college campuses, in social media mobs, and in the trauma rooms of Israeli hospitals. The Jewish world doesn’t need more arguments about political maps. It needs action, compassion, and courage.
The lesson of this congress is clear: Unity cannot coexist with moral relativism. We cannot expect cohesion if we keep inviting those who seek to undermine Israel’s rights to self-defense.
Next time, the World Zionist Congress should return to its roots – a forum for shared purpose, not a playground for fringe politics. Let it be a space where Zionists, and only Zionists, gather to strengthen the Jewish people and the Jewish state.
The writer is executive director of Hasbara Fellowships.