The World Zionist Congress elected new leadership for the World Zionist Organization (WZO) on Tuesday, securing a rotating chairmanship for incumbent Yaakov Hagoel and Doron Perez, a South Africa-born rabbi from Israel whose son fell fighting the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza.
The two men were elected by a large majority of 480 delegates out of 525. Each will serve for half a term. Yizhar Hess was re-elected as deputy and acting chairman at the 39th World Zionist Congress, the body said.
Perez, 55, is the chairman of the World Mizrachi Movement, a member of the WZO Executive, head of the Department for Spiritual Services in the Diaspora and a member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency for Israel.
One of his four children, Capt. Daniel Perez, fell fighting terrorists who invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. His body was taken to Gaza, and brought back for burial in recent weeks.
Yaakov Hagoel, 54, was born in Israel. He currently serves as chairman of the World Zionist Organization.
The elections in the diaspora for the World Zionist Congress reached a record number of votes: Approximately 265,000, according to WZO.
The 525 delegates are divided roughly equally between Israel (according to the political balance in Israel’s Knesset elections), the United States’ American Zionist Movement and the rest of Diaspora Jewry.
The WZO is one of four intertwined bodies collectively known as the National Institutions of the Jewish People, alongside the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Jewish National Fund (JNF-KKL) and Keren Hayesod–United Israel Appeal (KH/UIA).
The 128-year-old WZO, which Theodor Herzl established in 1897, has laid the foundations for Israel’s modern institutions. The organization has a $1 billion budget, whose allocation is also determined in the elections.
Last month, voting was halted at the World Zionist Congress, which is the legislative arm of the WZO. Yesh Atid and other parties halted the voting on budget allocation and nominations following Likud’s bid to appoint Yair Netanyahu, the son of Israel’s prime minister, as the head of the WZO’s Information Department.
The nomination was withdrawn and voting resumed this month, including on the allocation of roughly $61 million toward strengthening Jewish presence in Judea and Samaria—a cause opposed by Lapid’s party and the left in Israel and the Jewish world. Yesh Atid said it would no longer participate in the voting on nominations and budget allocation to protest alleged “corruption” within WZO.
