How did we get here?

Life rarely goes as you plan. Growing up, I dreamed of being a diplomat. After college, I moved back to Israel to study Diplomacy and Strategy. But when a debilitating illness and pain struck me down and called time on that dream, I turned despair at what felt like an impossible situation into an opportunity for personal growth, using my recovery time to immerse in Zionist texts, Israeli history, and Jewish poetry. The Zionists who came before us inspired me, and Jewishness saved me. Then, while working as a senior editor at Ynetnews, I had a front row seat to the 2014 Gaza war and the divisive 2015 election. I pivoted, again, toward a new path of lay leadership in Jewish American organizations, where my background in diplomacy, organizing, and community engagement helped me offer a vision of unity through shared values as an alternative to the rising polarization and animosity within our peoplehood.

My involvement in Jewish leadership led me to last year’s Jewish Agency’s Board of Governors, where I met someone appointed by Ben Gurion himself. While immensely grateful for his decades of service, I realized almost no one in the room was under 60. Younger Jewish leaders, like me, weren’t represented.

So I had the crazy idea to start a next-gen slate, a big tent of Jewish leaders who would run for the World Zionist Congress, because I knew there was no better place for Jewish dreamers than the venue that turned the dream of a Jewish state into a global effort that yielded our most vital national institutions and, eventually, the realization of the State of Israel in our historic homeland.

American Jews have been pivotal in the Zionist movement since its inception. Louis Brandeis, one of our greatest leaders, believed diaspora Jews should see ourselves as shareholders in the institutions rebuilding a Jewish state. The WZC offers every American Jew a chance to exercise their civic duty and help guide the future of our critical national institutions. But in 2020, only 2% of American Jews cast a vote. After October 7, we know we all have a role within the global Jewish peoplehood. It’s astounding to see how we’ve broken voter turnout records just two weeks into this election cycle.

We’re determined to keep it that way. We want to make sure the rising generations have a seat at the table where decisions are made about the Jewish future within Israel and across the world.