(Courtesy of AZM) Initial preparations are underway for the next U.S. election for the World Zionist Congress (WZC). The American Zionist Movement (AZM), which administers the vote, has announced that any group that may be interested in running a new party slate for the election must file an application by May 15, with its proposed platform and candidate list. Procedural details are posted at azm.org/elections.

The 39th Zionist Congress is currently scheduled to be held in the late fall of 2025 in Jerusalem. The vote in the U.S. Jewish community to elect the American delegates to the WZC will likely be conducted during the early part of 2025. As the international “parliament of the Jewish people,” the WZC is the only democratically elected global Jewish forum and is the direct continuation of the Zionist Congress first convened by Theodor Herzl in 1897 in Basel. The delegates and the bodies they form at the WZC determine the leadership and influence the policies of Israel’s national institutions: the World Zionist Organization (WZO), the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI), Jewish National Fund-Keren Kayemet LeIsrael (JNF), and Keren Hayesod, which together allocate nearly $1 billion annually in funding in support of Israel and Jewish communities around the world.

In the last election in 2020 nearly 125,000 American Jews voted for the 152 U.S. delegates representing 15 party slates. Delegates were elected from 14 slates, including four new ones. Each slate presents a platform statement of their Zionist ideology and goals as well as a list of its individual delegate candidates for the WZC. For reference, past slate materials can be seen at azm.org/elections.

As there are many required steps in qualifying a slate for candidacy, interested organizations should contact Herbert Block, executive director of AZM, at [email protected] or [email protected] for further details on the election rules, procedures and criteria.

The American Zionist Movement is composed of 45 national Jewish Zionist organizations and works across a broad ideological, political and religious spectrum linking the American Jewish community together in support of Israel, Zionism and the Jewish people. AZM is the U.S. Zionist Federation in the World Zionist Organization.