New York – The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) Coalition, long committed to safeguarding the integrity of World Zionist Congress (WZC) elections, is deeply concerned about the widespread fraud uncovered during the 2025 U.S. area elections. Despite early warnings from the ZOA urging the Area Election Committee (AEC) to “follow the money,” it remains unclear if those recommendations were heeded.
As an active member of the AEC, the body responsible for setting election rules, ZOA has consistently advocated for safeguards against electoral misconduct. In 2015, ZOA brought the first-ever fraud cases against two slates (Reform and Zionist Spring) who paid voters to vote for them in the 2015 WZC election. This year, ZOA joined formal complaints against slates accused of improper incentives and misleading practices, including the Reform movement’s slate which allegedly instructed voters that simply “self-identifying” as Jewish was the criterion for voting, in violation of election rules requiring Jewish identity.
In the most recent election, press reports revealed a large fraud operation involving approximately $50,000 in prepaid credit cards used to cast over 10,000 fraudulent votes ($5 per vote) across five or six different slates, using fake email addresses. There is currently no evidence that any of the slates that received these votes were aware of or involved in the scheme. Nonetheless, some of the other slates are pushing for extreme penalties without proof of complicity.
The American Zionist Movement (AZM) and the AEC, which oversee the election process, first detected fraud linked to two slates, and the news of those fraudulent votes was published in the press immediately. Strangely, despite knowing the activity could be tracked and the votes discounted, the perpetrators continued casting fraudulent votes for four additional slates, raising suspicion that the scheme may have been a deliberate attempt to implicate innocent parties.
After the fraud surfaced, ZOA urged the AEC to identify those responsible by following financial trails. ZOA specifically requested access to the full credit card numbers involved to conduct its own investigation, requests that have been denied.
Frustrated by inaction, ZOA launched its own investigation. A banking institution contacted by ZOA has identified a party who purchased many prepaid card utilized to cast fraudulent votes, but ZOA was told the party’s identity can only be released to law enforcement. The ZOA’s efforts to engage authorities have so far been unsuccessful, though we continue to pursue all legal avenues to access this critical data.
In tracking the timestamps available to AEC members relating to the fraudulent votes, the ZOA discovered that they were likely cast from Israel. This revelation, when viewed alongside known dishonest efforts by an individual in Israel to suppress the Haredi vote through targeted misinformation campaigns, raises further questions about whether the same actor could have been involved in orchestrating this fraud to discredit rival slates. However, ZOA does not want to cast blame without the facts.
While others rush to assign blame, ZOA remains committed to uncovering the truth. Our goal is ensuring that WZC elections reflect the authentic will of the Jewish community, free from manipulation and fraud.