Zionist Youth Demand Bigger Seat at the Table
JTA reports,
Dana Landau, 21, from Zurich, and Jeremy Uhr, 25, and Ilan Tojerow, 29, both from Brussels, are among the younger generation of faces at the Congress. Committed and intelligent, they wonder, like many of their fellow delegates, how to keep the World Zionist Organization relevant and results-oriented in the 21st century.
“The Zionist movement is living in the past,” said David Borowich, chairman and founder of Dor Chadash, a New York-based group that seeks to build ties among young Israelis and American Jews. “What are we revitalizing? What is the Zionist movement?”
A vote at the last Congress four years ago decided that future gatherings would set aside 25 percent of seats for delegates age 30 or under.
At a plenary session held at Jerusalem’s International Convention Center, many delegates spoke in favor of giving the younger generation more clout.
“We stand here and we talk about renewal and pay lip service to you. We have 25 percent of the delegates, but the decisions are made at the (Zionist) executive, and there is no voice there for youth,” said a younger delegate from Canada, Tomer Sadetsky. “We have to find a way to make us involved in the real decisions.”
Sound familiar? I thought so. Expect more of the same.
If you want to know what actual Youth have been writing about the conference–and not youth as told by the JTA–check out BlogsofZion for a liveblogging record of the Congress.
Nice… i’m quoted on Jewschool… but it’s not Tomer Sadetsky – it’s Tomer Chervinsky
Ahhh well… 🙂
Hey, just got back from Israel, where I was part of the USA delegation, and, alternatively, part of the World Union of Meretz siah / faction.
I’m not sure about Dana Landau, 21, from Zurich, but she might have been part of our faction. Jeremy Uhr, 25, and Ilan Tojerow, 29, both from Brussels, were. And both played active roles in teh work of our faction, both in pre-Congress meetings, and at the Congress itself. Can’t undersand how the author of the JTA dispatch missed this salient fact … Somehow, David Borowich managed to get himself identified as the “chairman and founder of Dor Chadash, a New York-based group that seeks to build ties among young Israelis and American Jews.” So it goes.
By the way, that “younger delegate from Canada,” identified as Tomer Sadetsky but as noted above really Tomer Chervinsky, was also part of the World Union of Meretz delegation. He’s an activist in Hashomer Hatzair. The North American HH mazkir / secretary, Shlomo Adam Roth, was also there, as were HHers from a number of Spanish-speakign and other-language countries. Needless to say, they were young activists.
>> Arieh Lebowitz
>> Vice Chair
>> Meretz USA http://www.meretzusa.org/
Yeah… Dana was also a part of the Meretz delegation – so in essence the title of the story should read : Meretz empowers youth delagates to claim their place within the Zionist Movement
BTW – hi Arieh 😀