50 | MAY 11 • 2023
ERETZ
I
srael, like most other countries, has a
parliament (the Knesset) and considers
Jews worldwide to be part of Am Yisrael,
the Jewish nation family.
How are Jews spread around approxi-
mately 80 countries thus represented?
“The WZO is the democratically elected
parliament of the Jewish people,
” says Tova
Dorfman, new World Zionist Organization
president and former Oak Park and
Farmington Hills resident.
“Yet, few Jews around the world really are
aware of the WZO or what it does, unless
they’re involved. For example, the last WZO
elections in 2020 brought out 132,000 voters
in the U.S., more than ever and more than
double the turnout for the 2015 elections,
”
she said, “but still a very small amount of
the potential among the 5.5 million or so
American Jews.
”
Dorfman, 64, took her post Feb. 1. “The
president is elected by the executive com-
mittee, which includes department heads
and partners in the WZO. They met in
January, electing me unanimously with no
abstentions,
” she said. This occurred follow-
ing an agreement between the Likud faction
and Yesh Atid, her political home.
“I am hopeful that together, all the fac-
tions and organizations that are members
of the World Zionist Organization will
continue to work in unity for the fulfillment
of the Zionist vision in the 75th year of our
independence,
” said Yaakov Hagoel, WZO
chairman.
Dorfman’s first formal introduction to
world Jewry was at the 39th World Zionist
Congress, April 19-21, often referred to as
the “parliament of the Jewish people.
” The
Congress, which is the WZO’s supreme
ideological and policy-making body, makes
key decisions on how to allocate some
$1 billion annually to support Israel and
world Jewry.
“One of my goals is awareness, including
letting Jews know there are elections every
five years,
” Dorfman said.
Yet, while elections “do give people the
opportunity to vote for something that
actually can make the difference,
” she hopes
“more people become engaged through
involvement with Zionism, organizations
that can exercise a lot of influence, and the
Zionist enterprise, all stronger in the ’70s
and ’80s,
” she said.
Twenty-nine percent of the World Zionist
Congress’s 500 delegates are elected by U.S.
Jews on behalf of their diaspora organiza-
tions. “There is a lot of potential to influ-
ence policy,
” she said.
Issues include equality, access, social and
economic justice, and pluralism, which are
important to many American Jews.
“Ms. Dorfman is taking office in the
midst of facing great and important chal-
lenges for the Jewish people and the Zionist
world,
” Hagoel said.
Dorfman is up to the task. Her profes-
sional career model is about innovative, cre-
ative programming and has been singularly
successful in bringing around to the table
key individuals and institutions to create an
invaluable synergy.
She hopes more “get involved in poli-
cy making and distribution of funds that
reflect the interests of American Jews,
Detroit Jews,
” she said.
Dorfman is the first woman to fill the
position, some 36 years after Ruth Popkin
was the first woman to chair the 1987
World Zionist Congress Presidium and
Detroiter-Israeli elected
president of the worldwide
‘Jewish Parliament.’
New
President
at WZO
NATHANIEL WARSHAY
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Tova
Dorfman
COURTESY OF THE WORLD ZIONIST ORGANIZATION