By Asaf Elia-Shalev
As he was preparing to release his new book earlier this year, David Friedman, the former US ambassador to Israel under Donald Trump, was approached by a group that fosters support for Israel among Christians.
The group, known as Israel365, asked Friedman to support a slate of candidates in next year’s election for the World Zionist Congress, which gives Jews around the world influence over Israel’s governance.
Established by Theodor Herzl in 1897, the congress allocates $1 billion to Jewish causes every year and oversee the World Zionist Organization, which carries out the congress’ vision; the Jewish Agency, which plays a central role in immigration to Israel; and Jewish National Fund, which owns 13% of Israeli land.
Friedman agreed to the group’s request to use the title of his book, One Jewish State, as the name of the slate, signifying their shared support for strengthening Israeli control over the West Bank and their opposition to the two-state solution.
But last week, after the slate had gathered enough signatures to make the ballot, Friedman wrote on social media:
“To clarify, I am NOT affiliated with any slate or candidates seeking election and I have not authorized anyone to speak on my behalf.
“I believe that the World Zionist Congress should support the Jewish communities located in Judea and Samaria and I support the slates which share this view.”
Israel365 recently filed paperwork to change the slate’s name to Israel365 Action.
The controversy, which caused dozens of people to leave the slate, comes amid anxiety about Christian influence in an election that’s supposed to involve Jews only.
With Israel’s government increasingly drawing support from US evangelicals, some fear non-Jews could cast ballots or otherwise shape the results in contravention of the election’s by-laws.
Such concerns have prompted a change to the process for determining voter eligibility. In the past, voters have had to state that they were Jewish and Zionist, criteria that exclude, for example, the tens of millions of Americans who identify as Christian Zionists. Now, voters will have to affirm that they are Zionist, Jewish, and that they “do not subscribe to another religion.”
Herbert Block, the executive director of the American Zionist Movement, which administers the election online in the US, said the change was not prompted by the allegations against One Jewish State, but by a general desire to protect the integrity of the vote from people who may identify as Jews but should not be counted as such.
“Some members of our elections committee expressed concerns about Messianic Jews, or Jews for Jesus, or others voting,” Block said.
The coming election is hotly contested. At the deadline last month, nine new slates had gathered the requisite 800 signatures to register to run, on top of the 14 slates that have already existed since at least the last election in 2020.
About 125,000 American Jews voted in 2020, out of the millions of American Jewish adults.
“There’s particular interest in the election — American Jews are more engaged with things related to Israel and Zionism, especially since the Oct. 7 attack,” Block said.
Among the new slates, two major camps have emerged.
On the left are those that support the two-state solution and a pluralistic Israel. They dominated the World Zionist Organization (WZO) for decades — until the last election, when they lost the vote.
On the right are slates that want to bolster Israeli sovereignty in the West Bank and emphasize the country’s Jewish identity.
Most of the new slates belong to the latter group.
Both sides are treating next year’s contest as a referendum on the soul of Israel, and are vying for what’s seen as the biggest prize of the election: the American Jewish vote.
It decides about one-third of the representatives in the congress.
The other two thirds are split between Israel, whose representation is predetermined according to the proportion of seats each party holds in the Knesset, and the rest of the world, which is difficult to fight over because of how widely Jewish communities are dispersed.
The number of people in the US who say they are Jewish but are not considered as such by conventional standards is significant. The Pew Research Center in 2020 estimated that 1.4 million American adults who identify as Jewish do not have a Jewish parent and do not consider Judaism their religion. That’s in addition to 200,000 people who say they practice Judaism and also pratice another religion.
Then there are those who are religiously invested in Israel’s future but are not Jewish, the target constituency of Israel365, the nonprofit running the slate formerly named for David Friedman’s book.
A former candidate for the slate, Tilly Feldman, is a critic of Israel365 Action, which she calls a “Christian slate.” She said so on social media in response to Friedman’s post on X, joining another former candidate, Seth Leitman, who also called it a slate.”
Feldman, a pro-Israel activist in Los Angeles, says she was thrilled to join an effort that appeared to be backed by Friedman. A video posted by Israel365 in July is titled, “Ambassador David Friedman endorses the One Jewish State party in the World Zionist Congress.”
Friedman said in a 46-second clip that he was flattered the slate chose to name itself after his book and cast the decision as an endorsement of his own efforts to start a movement. He then said, “I endorse their efforts.”
Feldman and others say the slate used clips like this to trick them into thinking Friedman had a formal role.
“When I initially signed up, I believed, as did hundreds of others, that this slate was being led by ambassador David Friedman. This belief was central to their campaign and was a key reason so many delegates joined.”
She urged people to defect from the slate. Dozens of people withdrew, but the slate had more than enough signatures to qualify.
Rabbi Tuly Weisz, the founder of Israel365, says the slate’s leadership never misstated its relationship with Friedman.
“Since the war broke out, we have been working closely with him on behalf of Judea and Samaria.
“In the summer, we discussed with Ambassador Friedman calling our party ‘One Jewish State’ which at the time seemed like a great idea since his book was coming out a few weeks later, and he enthusiastically endorsed our slate. In the subsequent weeks, there was some confusion since his book and our movement were separate entities, so we decided to change our name to Israel365 Action.”
In the platform submitted to election officials months ago, the language hews closely to the principles found in Friedman’s One Jewish State book. But the slate’s new website contains additional language with a focus on the relationship between Israel and its Christian allies.
“Israel365 Action will direct resources towards engaging and educating the younger generation of Christians, thus ensuring that strong Christian support for Israel will continue into the future.”
Tilly Feldman said she would never have supported the slate to begin with if that were its platform.
Weisz said that Israel365, which counts many Christian followers, has taken care to communicate that only Jews are allowed to vote.
“We hope that when Israel365 Action gets a seat at the Zionist table, we can help forge even stronger relationships between the Jewish community and our tens of millions of non-Jewish allies and thereby transform Israel into a ‘light unto the nations’ and the most beloved country in the world.”
