Our Zionist Dream

One year ago, ANU was just a dream – a flicker of an idea tucked between the pages of Zionist texts in my library. I was searching for inspiration, for a platform that could support a new kind of political home – one rooted in the values that have long nourished my neshama, my Jewish soul. I imagined, just for a moment, what it must have felt like to stand as a delegate at the First Zionist Congress in 1897: the thrill of possibility, the weight of skepticism.

This week, I found myself once again poring over the highlighted passages of my frayed copy of The Zionist Idea. The words, once so alive with vision, felt heavy under the overwhelming fraud and insidious corruption that have threatened to derail this journey. I was tired—worn thin like the book before me. Zionist politics are not for the faint of heart.

And yet, as I explained yet again what the World Zionist Congress is – launching into my go-to reference, “You know, Teddy Herzl on the balcony in Basel?” – I began to see that iconic image with new eyes.

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After gathering two-hundred delegates from across the world, was he, like me, staring into the distance, wondering if he’d made the right choice? Questioning whether these stubborn Jews could ever come to a collective agreement? Was the photograph taken before or after Rabbi Mohilever’s speech? Was Teddy also reflecting, as I so often do, on the parable of the burning house – whether we have the luxury, in times of crisis, of rejecting those whose beliefs don’t align perfectly with our own?

In two days, we will live out a Zionist dream as improbable and bold as those of the 19th-century pioneers. Against all odds, we have taken on some of the most powerful Jewish institutions in the United States, armed with little more than our convictions – and the belief, as Muriel Rukeyser wrote, that “we are in the world to change the world.”

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ANU is a big tent. A beautifully chaotic, wildly inspiring circus of a tent—built for those who’ve felt like outsiders in every other movement. When I returned to the U.S. from Israel, I never imagined I’d one day return to the Zionist Congress not just as a native son, but as a delegate – shoulder to shoulder with some of the most passionate Zionists I know.

ANU is not a quiet tent. As the slate of discourse, our internal disagreements are real. Our lived experiences have taken us down vastly different paths and endowed us with a wide variety of perspectives. That diversity is our strength. It allows us to hold space for those still outside the tent—those seeking warmth, kinship, understanding. And while the election wraps up in two days, our movement’s mission is only beginning.

We’ve been the grassroots underdog in this campaign. We had no major donors, no institutional backing. What we had was each other. Our authenticity resonated. And we built this movement out of sheer commitment. In sleepless nights, coffee grounds. In endless WhatsApp threads, furious texts, and joyful, hilarious conference calls. We laughed. We cried. We built ANU up with every fiber of our being.

Building this big tent with you has been the honor of my life. It’s been a privilege to be in the trenches with you.

Together, we’ve gotten muddy – just as the Ba’al Shem Tov said we must – to pull our beloved Zionist institutions out of the muck and back into moral clarity.

The finish line is in sight. Just two days remain. As our dear ally Jonathan – @PoliticalJew to his Instagram faithful – reminded us: now is the time to be insufferable, in the best, most ANU way possible. This election matters. It matters for the future of the Jewish people. For the Zionist democracy entrusted to us. For the legacy we honor through action.

When you vote for ANU, you vote for yourself. For a party that sees you, that believes you matter, and that dreams of a world not only as it is, but as it could be.

From the bottom of my heart: thank you. For building this new Zionist movement. For being with me on the ground floor. For being gloriously, stubbornly, joyfully insufferable these last eight weeks.

Whatever the future holds, however many seats we earn through grit, resolve, and text-spamming our friends, family, and exes from summer camp—we are going to the World Zionist Congress.

We are making Teddy proud.

May we go from strength to strength. Together.