A quarter million American Jews voted last spring in the election for the slates of delegates who represented us in Jerusalem last month at the 39th convening of what is referred to as the "parliament of the Jewish people." The decisions of the Congress determine how over a billion dollars a year of diaspora Jewry's donations are spent. The resolutions debated and voted on by the delegates express the will of the Jewish people as a whole on the most urgent and consequential matters facing Israel and the Jewish people.

For possibly the first time ever, a member of our Utah Jewish community traveled to Jerusalem and served as a delegate at the Congress. Matthew Weinstein will report on the proceedings, including the headline-grabbing controversy involving Yair Netanyahu that caused delegates to nearly come to blows, and all the final outcomes of the Congress and how they will impact Israel and world Jewry over the next five years until the next Congress.

• • •

Register to join us at conkolami.org/sunday-schmooze

Kol Ami Members: Free • Guests: $10 per person

• • •

Matthew Weinstein grew up in the Baltimore Jewish community and attended his first Israel rally there in 1975, a protest against the UN resolution falsely equating Zionism with racism (and which was rescinded by the UN in 1991). Since then he has attended innumerable rallies, spent over four years living in Israel, published articles and essays and in general, made Israel's well-being his life's passion. In recent years he visits his family and friends in Israel annually and serves as Advocacy Chair for the Utah and Baltimore chapters of J Street, the national pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy lobbying group.