1. The Challenges of Rebirth
Mizrachi UK is the UK branch of the International Mizrachi movement. Founded in 1902, Mizrachi,
was the only religious movement to partner with the Zionist enterprise. The name Mizrachi is a
combination of two Hebrew words, Merkaz Ruchani – meaning a spiritual centre. Mizrachi’s role
was then and remains today, to be a proactive partner and to take personal responsibility in
contributing to the collective destiny of the nation of Israel through a commitment to a holistic and
inclusive Torah approach to life.
Historically, Mizrachi UK was a political organisation espousing the views of the partner party in the
Israeli government. The age old politicised Zionism is not as relevant as it was previously and
therefore Mizrachi became just as irrelevant as any of the other political organisations in the UK. As
a result, over the past 2 years we have undergone a complete overhaul of the ‘old ways’ and we are
now taking Mizrachi UK completely away from the political scene and throwing ourselves in to the
educational market, something which, at our core, we have always been.
There are many challenges of changing the perception of an organisation. For instance, do we change
everything we do straight away or do we take a more step-by-step view? How do we change the
negative connotations people had with the politicised movement? Can we still achieve the goals of
furthering the Religious Zionist ideology under this ‘new’ mode?
As the incoming Executive Director these are some of the questions I had to face. Together with the
board we decided to wipe the slate clean start with a ‘carte blanche’. We focused on what we wanted
to achieve, increasing connection to the land, state, people and Torah of Israel, and the best way to
achieve that goal. We decided on providing a space for people to develop their ideology through
running regular social activities connected to Israel as well as educational activities such as brining
top speakers over from Israel.
I am pleased to say that this ‘new’ style of Religious Zionism has got people buzzing again. Instead
of more smoke filled rooms of old men drinking coffee discussing the politics of old Zionism, we
now fill halls with people singing and dancing in celebration of Yom Yerushalayim. We have packed
speaker tours almost every month with guest speakers from Israel travelling across the country
speaking to schools, shuls and business people. We fill cinema halls with people coming to watch the
latest films coming out of Israeli Universities and our schedule of events is only becoming filled with
more and more programmes.
It is an absolute delight to see that in the space of just 1 year we have gone from 50 people in a room
at a Yom Yerushalayim dinner to over 300 people dancing to Yonatan Razel at the VIP lounge. This
huge growth is proof that Mizrachi UK is not something to put in the history books but is a living and
breathing organisation that is growing at an incredible rate.
Arieh Handler, one of the founding fathers of Mizrachi UK, was known to always be open to change
and new ideas. I am sure he would be incredibly proud of the wonderful rebirth Mizrachi UK is
making. It is a huge honour to be continuing the work of such an incredible man who achieved so
much in his life. It is my hope that, as Mizrachi UK grows over the next few years we wont forget
where we began, an organisation focused on supporting, educating about and protecting our
wonderful homeland, Medinat Yisrael, the State of Israel.
Joshua Pomerance
Executive Director of Mizrachi UK