Note: Please read our introduction to Eretz Hakodesh here.

What was Promised?

The idea of a frum party entering the World Zionist Organization (WZO) was first floated in 2019. It was rejected by dozens of Roshei Yeshiva because “no matter the supposed financial gain, it is forbidden to support, join, and identify with an organization whose purpose is to remove Torah as the foundation of the Jewish people. Joining the WZO is an immense Chillul Hashem, and by doing so, Eretz Hakodesh rendered itself illegitimate from its inception” (Here, also see here from talmidim of R’ Aharon Kotler, and here for background on Eretz Hakodesh and statements from previous Gedolim).

But never-the-less they pushed forward with the promise that they would “protect the Kedusha of Eretz Yisroel.” Repeating again and again that this isn’t something they want to do, but something they have to do. In a powerful letter responding to claims that R’ Chaim Kanievsky had permitted voting in the WZO as a horoas shoh in order to “save Kedoshay Yisroel”, a claim that was obviously rejected by the above mentioned rabbonim and roshei yeshiva, R’ Aharon Feldman writes: “Protecting kodshey Yisroel means stopping the assaults on Chareidi Judaism by the Israeli government in matters of the Kosel, geyrus, marriage, recognition of Reform etc. But this is an incorrect presentation of the issue; they will not save kodshey yisroel. . . This is nothing less than a fantasy. . . The advocates of Eretz Hakodesh have misled the Chareidi public, including several prominent Rabbonim, with a campaign designed to convince them to follow their fantasy,” (see the full letter here). Now we can look back on the previous five years and see exactly what a fantasy it was.

Empty Promises

The Kosel

While few campaign promises are as vague as “protecting the Kedusha of Eretz Yisroel” the one tangible issue that was consistently mentioned was The Kosel. In fact, on the Eretz Hakodesh website the first icon displayed under ‘What Have We Done?’ is “The Kosel”, but curiously, nothing shows up. They do claim though that, “Representatives of Eretz HaKodesh have experienced exceptional siyata diShmaya (Divine assistance) thus far. Over the past years, they have influenced various decisions within the Jewish Agency, the Zionist Federation, and KKL on important matters such as opposition to the Kosel compromise, the Shabbos Law, promoting Jewish values in institutional activities, and more.”

While the actual Reform Movement in Israel is pretty easy to ignore (being that there are approximately 40 temples in the entire country, as opposed to 850 in the US and Canada), one group has received a lot of attention: Women of the Wall. This group of provocative feminists has demanded the right to ‘egalitarian prayer services’ at the Kosel for decades and either they or their counter protesters often make headlines. In a letter published by the Rabbinical Alliance of America and signed by 16 members of the Eretz Hakodesh slate, they declared:

Think about how close they came to permanent changes at the Kotel HaMa’aravi, and the deference now given to the activities of the Women of the Wall (WOW) when they disturb traditional men and women simply trying to pray at the Kotel. Look at the efforts of the Israel Religious Action Center, headed by the same woman who also leads WOW, to oppose everything from mehadrin bus lines to traditional Jewish standards for marriage, divorce, burial, and conversion.

While one would be hard pressed to find any successes on the Kosel issue resulting from Eretz Hakodesh’s involvement in the WZO, there did seem to be one silent victory. In an article from July 2022 posted on the Eretz Hakodesh website:

Thanks to the efforts of Rabbi Pesach Lerner, chairman of Eretz Hakodesh, the status quo at the Kosel Hamaarovi did not become the subject of a resolution by the board of governors of the JAFI-Jewish Agency for Israel, a powerful and influential international organization. . .

The response from the Reform, Conservative and other liberal movements was fast and fierce, painting the Orthodox community with a broad brush and calling for wide-ranging changes to be made to the prayer setup at the Kosel, asking for the government to implement the Kotel Compromise Agreement that is currently on hold.

At the gathering Tuesday, the Jewish Agency board members expressed their desire, in response to the June 30 incident, to pass a resolution implementing those changes.

Rabbi Lerner, speaking on behalf of Eretz Hakodesh, standing as an individual against a group of many, was adamant that the Kosel’s status quo must remain, and that, while he condemned any and all violent confrontations, no changes can be made to compromise the kedusha of the Kosel.

Thanks to Rabbi Lerner’s strong position, the resolution to implement the Kosel Agreement was shelved. The Jewish Agency resolution that remained condemned the June 30 incident and called for a complete halt to all violence.

It sounds like the Jewish Agency (WZO) almost took the position of supporting a change to the status quo but, because of Pesach Lerner’s well-articulated response, they changed their mind and decided to simply condemn the rowdy protest.

First, a little context: in 2016 it was Natan Sharansky, the chairman of the Jewish Agency at the time, who negotiated the ‘Kotel Agreement‘ which was a plan to create a separate section called the ‘Ezrat Yisroel’ and says explicitly “With regard to the southern section [Ezrat Yisroel] – Local custom will be based on the principles of pluralism and gender equality, and worship will be egalitarian, with men and women praying together, without a partition.”

The Kotel Agreement is not an issue that the Jewish Agency had yet to take a position on, on the contrary, they created that position. Here is the official Jewish Agency press release about the resolution which is being claimed as a victory for Eretz Hakodesh; it was passed unanimously, including with Pesach Lerner’s vote:

Jerusalem, Israel, July 12, 2022 — At the closing plenary of The Jewish Agency for Israel’s Board of Governors event this week, a resolution was passed declaring that it “unequivocally condemns the despicable disturbances of prayer and smachot (special occasions) at Ezrat Yisrael (egalitarian section of the Western Wall), most recently those that occurred on Rosh Chodesh Tammuz 5782, and expresses its profound distress at these repeated instances of sinat chinam (baseless hatred).”

The Board of Governors also “wishes to urgently communicate its demand to the relevant Government Ministries that such disturbances must stop immediately, as well as The Jewish Agency’s view that those Ministries are responsible to ensure the security of those using Ezrat Yisrael, and therefore in charge of taking all legal actions to prevent such disturbances.”

Additionally, the resolution “wishes to instruct the lay leadership and the professionals of The Jewish Agency to take advocacy actions to the Israeli public about this grave situation and its impact on the global Jewish people and the relationship between Israel and Jews around the world, and to motivate (the) Israeli public in support of rapid and comprehensive government actions.”

Further, the “Board of Governors endorses the vision of the newly elected Chair of the Executive, Doron Almog, and the newly elected Chair of the Board of Governors, Mark Wilf, to strive for the right of every Jew to pray at Ezrat Yisrael according to his/her belief, as part of their vision to advance love and fellowship among the Jewish people family.”

It concludes, “Therefore, it is hereby resolved: Following discussions held at the Executive as well as at the Unity of the Jewish People Committee, The Jewish Agency, in collaboration with the Israeli Government, the Defense establishment and the Knesset, will promptly act for developing, approving, and implementing a detailed work plan for the above-mentioned actions.”

This certainly sounds like full-throated support for the Kotel Agreement. It didn’t just call for a halt to the violence as Eretz Hakodesh claimed it had; it called for the Israeli Government to implement a plan to ensure the security of the Ezrat Yisroel so every Jew can pray according to his/her belief, in other words exactly what the Women of Wall want.

At the very same conference Eretz Hakodesh described as a victory for the Kedushah of the Kosel the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency, which Pesach Lerner is a member since his election to the World Zionist Congress, elected Doron Almog as their new chairman. Two days after his election his first public event was hosted by the Reform Movement and attended by Rick Jacobs president of the Union for Reform Judaism in America and notorious Labor MK Gilad Kaliv at which Almog proudly told the story of this daughter getting an aliyah at her Reform bat mitzvah.

Geyrus

Another important issue to many frum people is area of giyur in Israel. In fact, Eretz Hakodesh listed “set[ting] standards of marriage, divorce, and conversion” as one of the five direct outcomes of voting them into the WZO.

Since Israel recognizes the ‘Jewish identity’ of anyone with a Jewish grandparent more and more non-Jews from different countries, particularly Eastern Europe, are coming to Israel to claim their citizenship and find better financial opportunities. For example, in 2018 there were 30,300 immigrants under the Law of Return, of them 12,600 were Jewish, and 17,700 were not. In all, the Law of Return has given citizenship to approximately 400,000 non-Jews currently living in Israel. But being a non-Jewish Israeli has its downsides. Aside from particular legal restrictions (for example, in regards to marriage) Israel is country for the Jews, their wars are Jewish wars, and those killed are Jewish martyrs. This was recently signed into law in Israel in what is known as the Nation-State Law. For this reason, both secular and religious Zionists have been pushing to make geyrus easier for secular non-Jews serving in the IDF. At one point the IDF was even commanding eligible soldiers to attend ‘conversion seminars’ and refusal would be considered “defying an order.”

In 1999 the Israeli government partnered with the World Zionist Organization’s operations wing, The Jewish Agency, to start Nativ, an organization helping non-Jews who served in the IDF stream line their conversions. The first step is a Jewish identity course, followed by a second conversion course. More than 20,000 non-Jews have completed the Nativ conversion process. Here’s how The Jewish Agency describes it:

The Nativ experience is cross-denominational, and designed to help support these soldiers in the quest to become more familiar with Jewish culture. These soldiers, who devote years to serving Israel, deserve to be brought into our Jewish story. They deserve the chance to better understand their place in the history and tradition of the Jewish people. And by understanding just what they are fighting for and why, their army service is more meaningful. After completing the program, many participants choose to pursue an optional extended conversion course.

As can be seen in their promotional video, they don’t even hide that both their teachers and graduates don’t even wear yarmulkes. As one Russian born graduate who was interviewed about her experience said, “I was worried about preaching and religious coercion, that they would force me to do things that I didn’t want to do. Religious people had always seemed to me like space aliens that just want to eat you. . . People always ask me why in the world would I go through a process like this and why take upon myself a burden like this, and I answer them that in accepting yourself there is no burden. . . I grew up here, I studied here, I served in the Army here, I celebrated the holidays like everyone else, I always thought and dreamed about a big, beautiful, traditional wedding. So there is no reason for me to give that up and go get married in Cyprus and not here in Israel.”

In other words, they begin the process of geyrus with people who currently think religious Jews are space aliens and really don’t want to have to go to Cyprus for their wedding. A mention of H-shem is not to be found anywhere in the organization’s literature. This, for any frum person, is a nightmare.

Well, thankfully in 2015 Nativ saw a major drop in funding from the Israeli government and was at risk of financial collapse. In 2018 a deal was made by PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Education Naftali Bennet to save the organization by allocating to them $5.6 million. Certainly, this financially vulnerable organization, which poses such a vital danger to Klal Yisroel and receives massive funding from the WZO through the Jewish Agency, should be a prime target for Eretz Hakodesh to ‘fight from the inside’ and ‘save the Kedusha of Eretz Yisroel.’

In 2020, the first year Eretz Hakodesh entered the WZO, the Jewish Agency gave Nativ $8.93 million. By 2024, with Pesach Lerner sitting on their Board of Governors, The Jewish Agency had increased their funding to $12.4 million. Nativ is again back on its feet helping goyim connect to their ‘Jewish roots.’ The Jewish Agency boasts of over 1,000 IDF soldiers currently enrolled.

In all fairness, it can’t be said that Eretz Hakodesh has done nothing to protect geyrus in Eretz Yisroel. In 2023, the leadership of the WZO wrote a letter Prime Minister Netanyahu demanding he maintain the status-quo of relaxed standards for geyrus in Israel – in other words, continue to support programs like Nativ and don’t give in to the pressure of the frum parties in his coalition who oppose non-chareidi geyrus. Pesach Lerner and Stephen Rosedale, a fellow member of Eretz Hakodesh who sits on the Board of Governors of The Jewish Agency with Lerner, as well as being a founding board member of the Nahal Haredi NGO, wrote a response apologizing to the prime minister for the implied criticism:

 “As representatives of the Eretz HaKodesh movement, which represents thousands of Jews in the Diaspora, we hereby share with you the true stance of many of the members of the Jewish communities in the United States and all over the world, who share in the joy of the establishment of a strong national government. They, like us, support your coalition and pray for the government’s success. . . Yes, there are issues relating to religious and state affairs in the State of Israel that need to be discussed. We hope that we will be invited to be part of those discussions. . .”

Well, let’s see if such a strongly worded letter will outweigh the $12 million in annual funding.

The Draft

Probably the most important issue in Israel today is the chareidi draft (see here for more information). R’ Meir Tzvi Bergman has quoted his father-in-law, Rav Shach, that the draft requires “mesiras nefesh mamosh.” With over a thousand arrest warrants issued for bnei yeshiva at the time of writing; this is the closest opportunity possible to literally saving ‘Kedoshay Yisroel’. What has Eretz Hakodesh done? They made a video for people from America who have an Israeli parent, telling them which form to fill out. Other than that, they haven’t made any mention of the issue. They haven’t publicly opposed the draft. They haven’t protested The Jewish Agency (WZO) opening two schools running military prep courses for the expected chareidi recruits. They just don’t talk about it.

Shmittah

Eretz Hakodesh has always claimed they would protect “Kedushas Eretz Yisroel“. This is, by definition, vague, being that the Kedusha of Eretz Yisroel doesn’t depend on any external factors and can’t be protected, just as it can’t be diminished. But they’ve claimed victory in ensuring the continued kedushas ha’aretz by apparently convincing the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet l’Yisrael or KKL) to start keeping shmittah. To quote their website:

For the first time in history, Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael/the National Fund for Israel (KKL) observed the laws of Shmittah on all the lands under its jurisdiction. In practical terms, this meant that, thanks to the orchestration of Eretz HaKodesh, KKL did not rely on a heter mechirah (selling the land), but allowed all its land to remain fallow for the recent Shmittah year.

That sounds very impressive. To convince the largest private land owner in Israel to stop using a heter mechirah and keep shmittah k’halacha despite the immense financial cost (in their eyes) and radical shift in policy would certainly be something to brag about.

In a separate advertisement, they claim that 20,000 dunam (less than 5,000 acres) of land will now be keeping shmittah, and in a different ad, they said it is 30,000 dunam, less than 7500 acres. For context, the KKL has purchased 2.6 million dunam of land in Israel, and 20,000 dunam is only 0.77% of the total. Eretz Hakodesh doesn’t describe the breakdown of this land, other than that some carob trees were harvested. This is important, because the KKL primarily owns forest which is basically unaffected by shmittah laws except for ceremonial tree plantings. How many actual farmers decided to keep the halochos of shmittah was not specified. Even more so, this historic preservation of kedushas ha’artz apparently did not seem significant enough for the KKL to even mention it on their website, which says that, “As in previous Shmita cycles, this Shmita year, which began on Rosh Hashana 5782, KKL-JNF is observing the laws of Shmita in all forests, parks and sites under its responsibility, in accordance with the directives of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel.” In other words: nothing special this year.

Of course, the more people who keep shmittah, the better but Eretz Hakodesh is not talking about doing kiruv to farmers. They are talking about getting a completely Zionist organization, whose purpose is to “strengthen the bond between the Jewish people and its homeland”, in the most secular sense, to agree to designate some land for ceremonial shmittah practice. No one is more frum from this effort, and Eretz Yisroel doesn’t have any more Kedushah because of it.

In Conclusion

The roshei yeshivos and rabbonim who opposed Eretz Hakodesh did so afilu im timtze lomer, even if everything they said was true. They said that we are forbidden to join an organization created specifically to redefine the Jews as a nationalist political group and not as the Am H-shem. We are forbidden from signing a declaration that the state of Israel is central to the existence of Klal Yisroel. And we are forbidden to join umbrella groups that include the Reform and Conservative. This is all even if Eretz Hakodesh would actually have been able to use the vast resources of the WZO to accomplish all of the things above. As R’ Elchonon said in the name of the Chofetz Chaim (1 & 2), ““Better for the majority of yeshivas to close ח”ו than to join [The Jewish Agency].”

But, with hindsight, it is clear that this is not a case of simple people making a seemingly reasonable decision to advance Torah values from within an otherwise unappealing organization and the rabbonim coming to remind them of the correct Torah hashkofah and historical precedent. This interpretation is, as R’ Aharon Feldman said, just a fantasy. They’re not stopping the Reform, they’re not saving the Kosel, they’re not making all the farmers in Eretz Yisroel keep shmittah, and they’re not doing anything to prevent actual dangers to frum Jews. Were they overly optimistic? Was it a lack of skillful askonus? No, to quote R’ Aharon Feldman again, “The advocates of Eretz Hakodesh have misled the Charedi public, including several prominent rabbonim.” And when we see their deception in one area, their dubious claims of rabbonim who supported them only to pull back their support shortly afterwards becomes all the more understandable.

So, what have they been doing for the last five years? Their successes might be more telling than their failures. Read Part 2 of this article here.

Letters from Rabbonim

Original here