NEW YORK (Press Release) — Twenty-four delegates from California — including one from San Diego — have been elected to the 2025 World Zionist Congress (WZC).
The American Zionist Movement (AZM) recently announced the certification of results in the election as well as the allocation of United States seats in the Congress — known as “the parliament of the Jewish people.” The Congress will convene in Jerusalem from October 28 to 30, 2025.
Alan Levine (Aish Ha’am) is the lone delegate elected from San Diego, with the other Californian delegates including 16 from Los Angeles, four from the San Francisco Bay Area, two from Sacramento, and one from Sonoma.
Levine is the CEO of Hasbara Fellowships. In his role, he has been involved in training of over 1,000 pro-Israel leaders in campuses and has spoken on over 25 college campuses.
Delegates from Los Angeles include Ken Chasen (VOTE REFORM), Elana Rabishaw (VOTE REFORM), Heidi Segal (VOTE REFORM), Shahene Nili (VOTE REFORM), Noa Kligfeld (MERCAZ USA), Victor Hadad (ORTHODOX ISRAEL COALITION), Sarah Pachter (Aish Ha’am), Esther Renzer (Kol Israel), Elan Carr (Israeli-American Council), Aya Shechter (Israeli-American Council), Dan Alpert (Israeli-American Council), Yossi Rabinovitz (Israeli-American Council), Benaya Cherlow (VISION), Yochay Botach (VISION), Abe Gurko (The Jewish Future), and Roei Eisenberg (ANU).
The Bay Area delegates are Courtney Cooperman, Analucia Lopezrevoredo, Alyse Kirschen, and Galia Amram, all from VOTE REFORM, and the delegate from Sonoma is Paula Pretlow, also from VOTE REFORM. Sacramento delegates are Jennifer Kaufman (VOTE REFORM) and Mona Alfi (VOTE REFORM).
An all-time record 224,969 valid votes were recorded in the election for U.S. delegates to the 39th World Zionist Congress, which took place from March 10-May 4, 2025. The election was administered by AZM, the umbrella Zionist Federation in the U.S.
The final results confirm that participation in the 2025 election, which took place from March 10-May 4, 2025, marked the highest turnout ever in a U.S. Zionist Congress election as well as more than an 80% increase in votes cast in the prior U.S. WZC election in 2020.
The 155 delegates elected from the U.S. — amounting to almost one-third of the elected Congress delegates — will join others from around the world to make key decisions regarding the allocation of over $1 billion annually in support of Israel and world Jewry.
“Based on the final election results that have been certified today, we can say without question that the Zionist movement in the United States is stronger than ever,” said Herbert Block, Executive Director of AZM. “American Jews’ record-breaking turnout means that the overall U.S. delegation to the 39th World Zionist Congress is positioned to have a greater backing and prominence than ever in advancing a multitude of high-priority Jewish and Zionist causes.”
A record 22 slates representing diverse political beliefs, religious denominations, and cultural traditions competed in the election, which is held once every five years. This represented a 57% surge from the 14 American slates that won seats in the prior Congress in 2020.
After all open election issues were addressed by the AZM’s Area Election Committee (AEC) and further reviewed by the AZM Tribunal and the World Zionist Organization’s (WZO) Zionist Supreme Court in Israel, the AZM has now certified and released the number of mandates earned by each slate, calculated in accordance with the formula prescribed by the election rules of the U.S. AEC and the WZO.
The Congress in October follows in the footsteps of the First Zionist Congress, convened by Theodor Herzl in 1897 in Basel, where Jewish leaders from throughout the world launched the modern Zionist movement and proclaimed that the Jewish people should have a state of their own.
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Preceding provided by the American Zionist Movement