MAKE YOUR VOICE COUNT

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It was said that the early Zionist activist Nachum Sokolow was fluent in seventy 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 Land 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 Nachum 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, He 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?

I’m running on the ZOA slate in this WZO election because I believe—unapologetically—in the centrality of Israel in Jewish life. And not just the Israel that exists today, but all of historic Eretz Yisrael. Judea and Samaria are not colonialist projects. They are our homeland. Our inheritance. No different from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, or Teveria. As far as I’m concerned, that’s not extremism. That’s Judaism.

In a speech that still echoes with moral clarity, Menachem Begin declared: “Not one inch of Eretz Yisrael shall be given up. Our right to the land does not stem from the Holocaust. It is not compensation. It is our historic right.”

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/