On Saturday night Jews around the world will end the Seder ritual by singing “לשנה הבאה בירושלים”—”Next year in Jerusalem!” For me, this end to the seder usually feels joyous—surrounded by my family, full of so much food and drink of the seder feast, having spent hours reliving beautiful origin story of my people, this song comes with clapping and revelry.
Yet, ending the seder with the call “Next year in Jerusalem” is also bittersweet, because it represents the reality that, while we are grateful for the redemption from slavery retold each year in the Exodus story, the world and the Jewish people are not yet fully redeemed. There is still more work to be done to be free from fear and hate, for Jewish people to be able to be who and what we want to be. In this context, Jerusalem, and Mt. Zion at its center, represent the Jewish people’s aspiration for better times ahead.
This Pesach I am thinking about the symbolism of Jerusalem, having recently voted in the World Zionist Congress elections. As part of joining the worldwide movement of the Jewish people, I was asked to affirm my commitment to the Jerusalem Program, the platform of the World Zionist Organization. As I read it, it felt to me to be another expression of our people’s aspirations to shape a world closer to the one we imagine.
The Jerusalem Program
Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, brought about the establishment of the State of Israel and views a Jewish, Zionist, democratic, and secure State of Israel to be the expression of the common responsibility of the Jewish people for its continuity and future.
The foundations of Zionism are:
- The unity of the Jewish people, its bond to its historic homeland Eretz Yisrael, and the centrality of the State of Israel and Jerusalem, its capital, in the life of the nation.
- Aliyah to Israel from all countries and the effective integration of all immigrants into Israeli society.
- Strengthening Israel as a Jewish, Zionist, and democratic state and shaping it as an exemplary society with a unique moral and spiritual character, marked by mutual respect for the multi-faceted Jewish people, rooted in the vision of the prophets, striving for peace and contributing to the betterment of the world.
- Ensuring the future and the distinctiveness of the Jewish people by furthering Jewish, Hebrew, and Zionist education, fostering spiritual and cultural values, and teaching Hebrew as the national language.
- Nurturing mutual Jewish responsibility, defending the rights of Jews as individuals and as a nation, representing the national Zionist interests of the Jewish people, and struggling against all manifestations of anti-Semitism.
- Settling the country as an expression of practical Zionism.
I find the values and vision articulated in the Jerusalem Program very moving, connecting me both to our people’s history and inviting me to help shape our shared future.
The Zionist movement succeeded in establishing the Jewish state. But that is not the end of the story. Just like we sing at the end of the seder, the world is still not yet redeemed, and the worldwide Jewish institutions that were built by the Zionist movement are still at work helping Jews around the world. Among those institutions, the Jewish Agency for Israel is one of Federation’s core Israel and Overseas partners.
I encourage you to help define the destiny of the Jewish by voting in the World Zionist Congress election. This is a democratic process—check out the 22 different slates and find the one that matches your views. I believe you will feel empowered, and that by joining the worldwide expression of Jewish people you will help bring us all closer to that better future.
Next year in Jerusalem!