JTA — After running as a candidate last time, Abraham Silberstein will not even be voting in this year’s election for the World Zionist Congress.

In 2020, Silberstein had joined a liberal slate from the United States vying for representation in the congress, a unique legislative body that lets Jews from all over the world have a say in Israeli affairs. A critic of Israel, he agreed to join the Reform movement’s list of candidates. Serving in the congress, he felt, meant having a seat at the table.

Founded by Theodore Herzl 128 years ago, the congress has influence over Israeli policy on immigration, land use and religious affairs through its control of institutions such as the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund. It also distributes about $1 billion a year to Jewish causes.

Given his position near the bottom of the list of candidates, Silberstein knew he had no chance of being elected. But his willingness to participate was an expression of his politics at the time: progressive and Zionist.

The war in Gaza has changed that outlook — and his approach to the current election, which remains open for voting through May 4.

“I have, in general, become disillusioned with progressive Zionism since October 7,” said Silberstein, a doctoral student in modern Jewish history at New York University, referring to the October 7, 2023, Hamas terror onslaught on southern Israel.

Silberstein vehemently objects to Israel’s conduct and no longer believes in the possibility of changing Zionism from within. Even if he did, he can no longer ethically participate in the election. That’s because voters are required to say they accept the Jerusalem Program, an evolving set of principles that serves as the official platform of the Zionist movement.

Silberstein refuses to accept the platform’s final clause, which identifies service in the Israeli military and support for the military as a fundamental Zionist value. It was added after the last election, amid debates in Israel about whether Haredi Orthodox Jews should continue to be exempt from service, and during a global surge in criticism of the Israeli military.

“If I claimed to uphold the Jerusalem Program today, I would be lying — and that would be plainly unethical,” Silberstein said.

Silberstein is not alone in reconsidering his position on the congress. As the 21 slates running this year ramp up their campaigns and election administrators tout record turnout during the first week of voting, American Jews at different fringes of the community are debating whether to participate. Silberstein is part of the conversation taking place on the far left.

Haredi Orthodox Jews, meanwhile, are also........

© The Times of Israel