Here is an opportunity to win $15,000 for your synagogue:
The Orthodox Union is calling on synagogues to designate the Shabbat of April 17-18, Parshat Shemini, to promote voting for the Religious Zionist- Vote Torah Slate in the ongoing World Zionist Congress Elections. The election will have a direct impact on funding for religious day schools and camps in America and Israel. A prize drawing contest has been created with an opportunity to win $15,000, as an incentive for synagogues to promote voting.[i]
Did you know your vote can determine:
- MASA subsidies for Orthodox students attending yeshivot and seminaries in Israel;
- Annual budgets for teaching emissaries (morim shlichim) in Jewish communities around the world;
- Annual budgets for youth movements, like Bnei Akiva;
- Annual infrastructure budgets for Israeli communities in Gush Etzion and Jerusalem;
- Additional Orthodox seats on boards of funding organizations.
The number of seats held by each party in the World Zionist Congress determines the staffing of the Jewish Agency, Keren Hayesod – United Israel Appeal, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael /Jewish National Fund and the World Zionist Organization. In turn, budget allocations for each organization are a direct result of the number of board members representing specific ideologies and politics. As such, if the majority of World Zionist Congress delegates are Orthodox/Religious Zionists, the funding organizations will allocate a larger portion of the available budget to educational and communal programming that is important to the Torah-observant world.
[i] View the rules online at www.ou.org/assets/Prize-Drawing-Contest-Religious-Zionist-slate-Vote-Torah.pdf.