Editor’s Note: Yeshiva World News (YWN) takes no official position in the ongoing debate regarding participation in the World Zionist Organization (WZO) elections. As always, YWN follows the guidance of its Rabbanim in determining what content to publish and which advertisements to accept. We urge our readers to do the same—seek the counsel of your Rav or Manhig and follow their direction regarding this, and any other hashkafic matter.
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To our Rabbanim, Kehillos, and the broader Jewish community:
With broken hearts, we write this urgent plea to expose a grave betrayal—one that threatens the integrity of our children’s chinuch and the hashkafa of our kehillos, all for financial handouts from the World Zionist Organization (WZO).
We are not extremists. We support Eretz Yisroel, we daven for Tzahal, and we stand with our people. But what is happening under the guise of “supporting Torah” is nothing less than a sale of our children’s neshamos to an anti-Torah agenda.
For years, the WZO has infiltrated yeshivos and shuls, offering financial incentives in exchange for participation in their elections. We were told this was about “fighting Reform influence” and “securing funding for Torah institutions.” But what they didn’t tell us was the real cost of that money.
We recently discovered that our own children—yeshiva talmidim and bnos Yisroel—were forced to complete projects glorifying Zionist leaders like Theodor Herzl and David Ben-Gurion. The schools didn’t even send these projects home—they were hidden from parents, buried under bureaucracy, sent only to the WZO to “prove” our schools were properly promoting Zionist values.
When one concerned parent—a graduate of Ner Yisrael, staunchly opposed to the WZO—questioned a menahel, he was brushed off. “Nothing to see here,” they said. But when a courageous teacher leaked the files from the school’s computer, the truth was laid bare: our children were being brainwashed into admiring Herzl, a man who advocated converting Jews to Christianity and refused to give his own son a bris milah.
Even worse, images have surfaced of rabbanim unknowingly standing in front of banners of Herzl inside a beis haknesses, all part of the WZO’s demands to maintain funding.
We are told that Gedolei Yisrael support the WZO-backed Shas Olami movement. The WZO proudly flaunts endorsements from Hacham Yitzchak Yosef and Hacham Avraham Salim, and Hacham Yitzchak is even being flown to America before Pesach to give a bracha those who vote in the election.
But did these gedolim know the full truth? Were they told that their signatures would lead to bnos Yisroel creating projects celebrating IDF enlistment? Did they know that their names would be used to justify embedding Zionist propaganda in our yeshivos?
Would Hacham Ovadia zt”l have allowed this? Would Rav Chaim Kanievsky zt”l have stood for this? We know the answer.
Baruch Hashem, our Sephardic kehillos are built on Torah and self-sufficiency. We are not beggars. We already pour millions into supporting Torah in Eretz Yisroel and around the world. We do not need Zionist money that comes at the price of our children’s hashkafa.
We are begging our Rabbanim, our community leaders, and those with influence: do not let this continue. Do not allow the WZO to buy their way into our mosdos with a few dollars.
We plead with Hacham Yitzchak Yosef and Hacham Avraham Salim: if you truly knew what was happening, would you not retract your support? If the Gedolim of the past were alive today, would they not cry out in protest?
This deception has been happening in our community for five years since the last WZO elections. Now that the truth is exposed, will we remain silent?
We close with the chilling words of a Shas WZO activist, when confronted with these revelations: “To get the funding, we have to ‘once in a while’ promote their agenda. This is part of having a partnership.”
A partnership? Selling our children’s neshamos for a seat at the Zionist table?
The time has come to break this unholy alliance. We must scream a zaakah gedolah. This is not about politics. This is not about money. This is about our future.
Signed,
Very Concerned Parents
Below are photos of the projects and rabbanim made to stand with photos of Herzl that were mentioned in this letter.
The views expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of YWN. Have an opinion you would like to share? Send it to us for review.
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32 Responses
This is why you SHOULD vote, but for Eretz HaKodesh. This way, you get funding without ridiculous strings attached.
In any event, the problems described above resulted from accepting funding, not from voting.
This is why you SHOULD vote, but for Eretz HaKodesh. This way, you get funding without ridiculous strings attached.
In any event, the problems described above resulted from accepting funding, not from voting.
I’m sorry, but am I the only one who is confused by this?
The Gedolim that are mentioned here have said to vote in the election and they know what’s going on in Eretz Yisroel.
“But did these gedolim know the full truth?” YES, otherwise they would not have endorsed it.
Who are the “very concerned parents”?
Very cute, but speak to the gedolim, I have a feeling that they have thought things through and despite your disagreeal, have backed wzo, if you wish to differ then speak to them, I’m not taking pesokim from concerned parents…
Watch the video of R’ Chaim on VIN and then tell me how he really was against it.
They’re like, “Dude, ssshhh, we’re just faking a bit of Zionism for some photos once in a while to get that money.” And this response is like “Chassssssssvshoooooolom! To even pretend Zionism for money is like faking accepting Yoshke.”
Ok I won’t vote. Hopefully I spend the $5 more wisely than the reform people that will use it to try and take down the kotel mechitza
Rubbish article. Especially if it’s coming from a think I know it all sephardi. Sephardim for generations other than their Ashkenazi counterparts always respected and honored their rabbis whether or not they understood their reasoning or not. They never banned or was mevazeh them. And for you to doubt in your article as if hacham Yitzhak and his father hacham Ovadia as well as hacham shalom Cohen who all agreed that one should vote as if they are misinformed shows how corrupted in your thinking you have become.
There is not one way. You should be more concerned as a parent to belittle gedolei sepharad in front of your children then to vote or not to vote. To say the gedolim don’t understand is so foolish. There is a reason why reformed Jews and conservative Jews and the open Orthodox Jews and anti Torah jews and reconstructionist Jews and Zionist Jews and the endless types of Jews all stemmed from the Ashkenazi world and not Sephardic. The rabbis sure know what their saying and doing. They unify their followers and keep them close to them. Fighting causes breakups between groups. From this fight to vote or not, you will have Ashkenazi for and Ashkenazi against causing another break up name type for them. The sephardim don’t have that and won’t, so don’t be the first to start it with this Baal gaava lashon hara and mevazeh talmidei chachamim opinion article. You don’t have to understand them you just need to follow and keep quiet.
YWN, when will you pull away your veil and tell us, pray tell us, who exactly are your rabbanim you claim to follow? JOWMA (remember them?) never even claimed to have rabbonim, and when Hamodia et. al realized they had been hoodwinked they finally stopped running their anti-Torah ads. You ran EH ads ‘for 2 weeks’ and now you’ve seen the light?
It matters not, you aren;t going to print this comment anyway, let alone reveal who your rabbonim are. Oh, let me guess: RYH. See VIN.
I voted last night for eretz hakodash. If your worried some Zionism may deep into your sight then avoid israeli streets other than meah shearim that have israeli flags.
Kehillos? Neshamos? Yeshivos?
You can write Hacham all you want. The writer is clearly not a true ספרדי.
We follow our Hachamim and Hacham Yitzchak is no politician. He is a 100% Sefer Torah through and through, and very shrewd.
I agree with @it is what it is. The writer should be ashamed of himself. Within the same sentence quoting the Sfardie Rabbanim to vote and then claiming they don’t know the full truth, is some nerve. The writer has to either be a troll or a Ger, because as Jews we are known to be genetically a very smart nation. And this is one of the most illogical posts I’ve ever seen. Vote!
Rebemes, it’s not your $5 that matters. It’s the billions they make when land is sold in E’Y. WZO takes a cut of each sale. They then distribute the money based upon the priorities of voting parties. LBGT vs KIRUV, overturn orthodox control over geirus and marriage vs. funding yeshivos. If the frumma in Lakewood and Brooklyn can vote for toeiva and criminals in order to get more programs ($), they can hold their noses and vote Eretz HaKodesh.
Take the money. Rabbi miller was once asked how we can take money from goyim. He answered we are taking so much from them anyway we might as well take their money.
Anyone familiar with the community, knows exactly where that picture was taken. It is a chabad affiliated community that appointed their own chief rabbi in defiance of the larger associated community. They don’t follow any da’as torah, they follow their own concocted ideas. Don’t bring a ra’ayah from that picture or those projects. The majority of students in that sects school are not shomer Torah u’mitzvos. Bring us a ra’ayah from the mainstream of the Sephardic community.
A bunch of hot air.
“Jews for Z” I guess is really pulling for some….oy
Rav Ovadia Yosef who kept the Rabin government from falling apart by keeping Shas in it’s coalition despite the VEHEMENT opposition of the other Gedoley Torah is the last person to claim as an opponent of voting in the WZO election. The opposition to Shas remaining in the Rabin coalition was a lot stronger and a lot more across the board than the opposition to voting in the WZO elections today . Yet Rav Ovadia Yosef felt Shas should remain and keep that government in existence. No question he would have supported voting in the WZO elections
I want to throw up. The chutzpa to include a major rabbi who vehemently fought against the zionist ideology (but not against zionist individuals, nor against the safety of Yidden in Eretz Yisroel) with “great zionists.”
Can we get some more information who created this project? Was it the children, the WZO?
פאר א פאר דאלער?! ס’איז פאר שווערע מיליאנען
So the Sephardi Gedolim have been “mislead” and don’t know what they signed but the Ashkenazi/Litvish Gedolim have not been “mislead” and are fully aware? Can you be any more racist than that?
Surprise, surprise a “parent” who is so “concerned” that he/she/it can’t sign a name or back up with any facts. The whole thing makes no sense. A Sephardi who uses Ashkenazi pronunciation in writing? Schools are forced to glorify Herzl is a parent votes in the WZO? Why would YWN feature a letter from some obvious fake source? Giving balanced reporting is fine, but let’s try to limit it to bonefide and intelligent sources in order to generate real discussion. Having some anti-Zionist pose as sefardi to add to the “anti-WZO election” crowd is strange.
To the troller above who wrote close to 20 comments in less than 12 hours, go take a nap. No need to spoil your Olam Haba any further.
YWN in their disclaimer falsely implies this is an issue of “hashkafa”. It is not; it is a violation of severe halachos to vote, and always was universally forbidden by both ashkenazim and sefardi gedolim for over a century – and still is.
All WZO parties, not just Shas, promote Zionism. After all, they have to do so as a condition of joining and remaining a part of the WZO. The WZO is an ideological organization, not a democratic government.
EH also promotes Zionism to American (and other) frum Jews learning in E”Y; after all, by joining the WZO, you are joining the original World Zionist Organization founded by none other than Herzl SR”Y.
As pertaining to this article, when Rav YS Elyashiv heard that the Shas party of the Israeli parliament wanted to join the WZO, which is the subject of this story, he decried that as a “nevala asisa biYisrael”.
Sefardim should not be fooled and neither should Ashkenazim.
The .COM site harehbetzba has a 50-or so page PDF titled “In Their Own Words”, which covers this and more. It also has the recordings of the speeches from the recent Lakewood asifa about this abomination of voting.
As Rav Chaim Brisker noted to some rabbanim who came to ask him: if you want your olam haBa to be with Herzl then you can join his organization. But if you want your olam haBa to be with Rav Chaim Brisker, then stay far away from this evil.
Koifer BIkur:
The Shas party of the Zionist parliament joined the WZO already 15 years ago. The question about “fooling” anyone (or not asking their gedolim) would need to be asked then. But Rav Elyashiv, at the time, stated that Shas joining the WZO was “nivala asisa biYisrael”.
TalkingTachlis: The writer has to either be a troll or a Ger, because as Jews we are known to be genetically a very smart nation.
What filthy, unnecessary comment. Completely uncalled for.
Where did you learn to use slurs like this??
All of these religious parties run by gedolim joined the WZO and yet some have the audacity to know better. Even go far as to say that it’s “universally forbidden” to vote. The stupidity is agonizing.
These concerned parents should find another school. Assuming those school projects are real and weren’t faked in order to make a point, the school that made them clearly has problems that goes way beyond any relationship they have with the WZO.
user176:
What are “all these ‘religious’ parties” in the WZO that were supposedly started by gedolim? Can you name even one, and which Rabbi said to start that? Rav Elyashiv told the Shas political party that for them to join the WZO would be a nevala sheEin kimosa.
The gedolim condemned EH for their fooling so many into literally becoming Zionists and joining the WZO to vote, and that was even before we could all see what they actually did once they joined the WZO over the past five years, as you can see in the WZO official reports and as quoted in the PDF at the harehbetzba site titled “In their own Words”. The condemnations have only increased since.
YWN. Can you post these 2 clips to show the actual rabonim, with faces, who endorse eretz hakodesh.
https://youtube.com/shorts/CsypOtuqa3I?si=phV1JtgCuBgY63dX
https://youtube.com/shorts/g9XMZAXme2c?si=e45dAVDbDgcFP9iR
Thanks
Harav Chaim Kanievsky Zatzal
https://youtube.com/shorts/alUVW3nOcW0?feature=share
Hakatan, “Rav Elyashiv told Shas”. Do you even realize what you are saying?
Hakatan, “Rav Elyashiv told Shas”? Do you even realize what you’re saying?