Freedom to Vote

April 1, 2025 in From the Clergy, Rabbi Deborah Megdal, Scroll

By Rabbi Deborah Megdal. 

If you ask our youngest Religious School students “Why do we celebrate Passover?” they might start by singing the refrain: “frogs here, frogs there, frogs are jumping everywhere!” — a popular children’s song about Pharaoh and the apparently hilarious second plague. But I assure you that if you nudge them to be serious, they will answer something like: “because we were slaves in Egypt, and God took us to freedom.”

Their simple answer is more nuanced than it appears. The child references two different freedoms: 1) freedom from slavery, and 2) freedom to start a new life in the Promised Land. Philosophers make a similar distinction. According to The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “negative liberty is the absence of obstacles, barriers or constraints” while “positive liberty is the possibility of acting … in such a way as to take control of one’s life and realize one’s fundamental purposes.”

Our Passover story reminds us to protect both “negative liberty” or “freedom from,” as well as “positive liberty” or “freedom to.” Even as we defend against modern Pharaohs, we must look to the Promised Land. For example, in the United States, we Jews fight for reproductive freedom — freedom from a distinctly Christian definition of life at conception, and freedom to practice our Jewish religion, which defines life as beginning at birth and requires us to prioritize the health of the pregnant person. To learn more or to make a Passover donation to our partners at the Red Tent Fund (a Jewish abortion fund): https://www.theredtentfund.org/

As Jews, we have spent the past 18 months in a defensive posture as a people — protecting the lives of Jews in Israel and fighting against antisemitism globally. But if we don’t also rebuild to focus on positive liberties, we will not truly be b’nei chorin (free people). In other words, who are we free to become?

This spring, American Jews have an unusually impactful opportunity to vote in the 2025 U.S. Election for the 38th World Zionist Congress. The 152 elected delegates from the United States will join delegates from Israel and around the world at the international “parliament of the people” in October, where they will set policy and allocate over $1 billion annually over the next 5 years.

According to Yizhar Hess, vice chairman of the World Zionist Organization and representative of Mercaz, the slate of the global Masorti/Conservative Movement: “We are talking about the budgets of three significant national institutions… Just as an example, JNF-KKL owns approximately 13% of the land in Israel, generating an annual budget that is larger than what all the Jewish Federations in North America raise together… This is money that belongs to the entire Jewish people.” (Times of Israel 2/11/25).

Vote for freedom from antisemitism, religious extremism, and discrimination. Vote for freedom to rebuild in the aftermath of October 7, uphold democracy and civil rights, and preserve a pluralistic Jewish society.

I voted today. You can vote from March 10 to May 4. Registration is quick and easy. There is a $5 administrative fee. To be eligible, you must: be Jewish (and not subscribe to another religion); be 18 years or older by June 30, 2025; be a U.S. citizen or a legal permanent resident in the U.S.; maintain your primary residence in the U.S.; accept the Jerusalem Program (the Zionist movement platform); have not voted in the November 2022 Knesset election (and will not vote in any future Knesset election which may be held prior to July 28, 2025). Vote here.