Mort Klein Reelected in Landslide as Zionist Organization of America Chief
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Mort Klein has been overwhelmingly reelected national president of the ZOA, beating Steven Goldberg, the first election challenger in Klein’s 20 years at the ZOA’s helm.
Klein won a landslide victory victory in the election held Sunday afternoon at the ZOA’s national convention in Philadelphia, earning 93% of the vote, or 115 votes, to Goldberg’s 9.
The election concluded a bitter campaign in which Goldberg had accused Klein of rigging the election by holding it in Philadelphia, Klein’s hometown, and forbidding absentee voting. But ZOA leadership said that the location was selected long before Goldberg announced his candidacy and that voting from afar was prohibited under the ZOA constitution and New York state law.
Goldberg first emerged as a Klein opponent after the ZOA temporarily lost its charitable status in February 2012. The tax-exempt revocation only received public attention after the publication of a Forward expose disclosing it seven months later.
Goldberg launched his bid to unseat Klein in part because he believes the ZOA is in “steep decline,” due to what he described as falling donations, dwindling membership, and poor employee morale.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
