Following months of planning, engaging, and educating communities about an election which is one of the best kept secrets, something historic happened for Religious Zionists in America. The Mizrachi Orthodox Israel Coalition ranked number one among all Orthodox slates and placed second overall among the 15 slates. We will have an unprecedented ability and opportunity to shape the World Zionist Organization funding for years to come.

It was only five years ago that the Mizrachi Vote Torah slate garnered 9,594 votes in the World Zionist Congress Election. Today, we are proud to report that 21,698 voted for the Orthodox Israel Coalition. Yes, we doubled in real numbers. Our strength is expressed in numbers and we are now the second largest slate in the U.S. Zionist movement.

This success is due to a tremendous team effort made by a powerful, unified coalition of organizations, community leaders, ambassadors, and a network of grassroots activists. Achdut was and will continue to be a key component to our success and our partners such as RZA Mizrachi, AMIT, OU, YU, Bnei Akiva, RCA, Touro College, National Conference of Young Israel, and Torah Mitzion stepped up and worked collaboratively toward advancing the values of our faith within the Zionist future.

As leaders in the campaign for the Orthodox Israel Coalition, we recognized that this election was about a fight for defending nearly $1 billion in funds for Torah values and Torat Eretz Yisrael. The religious Zionist movement and its core values were being put to the test. To quote Mark Twain, “Truth is mighty and it will prevail.” Thankfully, our efforts were successful and we prevailed.

For the first time in history, the Orthodox Israel Coalition, together with Eretz Hakodesh, ZOA and other slates, has achieved a predominately Orthodox voice in the halls of the World Zionist Congress.

This must be understood in a historic context. The American representation in the World Zionist Congress has, until this election, been heavily weighted in favor of Reform, Conservative, and more pluralistic voices in the American community. That is until this election. Of the 123,000 people who voted in the U.S. this year, well over half are affiliated with right-leaning and Orthodox movements. This is a change of epic proportions that can be likened to the 1977 revolution in Israeli politics when Menachem Begin came into power. That became known as “the revolution,” as after 30 years of a Labor-run country, the seemingly impossible happened with the more right-wing and traditional Jewish and Orthodox movements becoming the majority, forming the government and playing a major role in leading the country.

The bastion of liberal and pluralistic Jewish and political movements that have dominated the American Zionist scene has now shifted direction and being led by the Orthodox Israel Coalition.

These election results reflect the American Zionist elections, which represent around one third of the overall delegates to the World Zionist Congress. Another third is from Israel and the remaining third from around the world. There are elections taking place now in the other Zionist Federations around the world where Mizrachi represents the Orthodox community, as it has historically done for over almost 120 years. All of these delegates come together in creating the broad global religious Zionist movement and representation. This large movement is the way to make the biggest difference we can through the impact of our religious Zionist values in Israel and around the world.

We are grateful to every member of our community who voted and supported this effort. You are a part of history and have a share in this success.