Stamford Hill rabbis say it is ‘forbidden’ to vote in this week's Zionist election

A number of prominent Stamford Hill rabbis have intervened to discourage strictly Orthodox Jews from voting in this week’s online election to choose the UK’s delegation to the World Zionist Congress in Jerusalem in autumn.

In a public notice, they said it was “absolutely forbidden” to be a member of the WZO or vote in the elections.

Denouncing the WZO as a movement run and founded by “heretics and apostates”, they said its goal was to “make the Jewish people like all the nations”.

Their immediate target was the new Charedi-leaning religious party, Eretz Hakodesh (EHK), which will be competing for the first time in the UK in elections to the Congress.

More than 11,000 people have registered to vote in the poll - and according to an EHK campaign website, more than 7,000 have been registered on its behalf.

The notice indicates the divisions that exist over Zionism within the Charedi world. EHK has been backed by one of Britain’s most influential strictly Orthodox figures, Gateshead yeshivah head Rabbi Avrohom Gurwicz, who has said it was “an obligation” to vote.

Among the signatories of the notice against the WZO were several leading figures in the Union of the Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, the main umbrella grouping for Charedi communities in London. They include Dayan Aharon Dovid Dunner, Rabbi Zvi Feldman, Rabbi Yosef Padwa and Rabbi Sholem Friedman.

They accused EHK of trying to “seduce” Charedi Jews “in the guise of saving the religion and increasing support for Torah institutions”.

EHK has argued that liberal religious movements enjoy significant influence in the Zionist movement and wants to balance this by “amplifying the voices of Orthodox communities dedicated to preserving the timeless values of the Torah and authentic Jewish tradition”.

EHK UK has been approached for comment.

Charedi opponents of Zionism believe it has prioritised secular nationalism over commitment to the Torah and that it flies in the face of a teaching that the restoration of Jewish statehood must await the coming of the Messiah.