World Zionist Organization

The World Zionist Organization, or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization, or ZO, on September 3, 1897, at the First Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland. The ZO served as an umbrella organization for the Zionist movement. Theodor Herzl, who organized the first Congress, later wrote, "At Basel I founded the Jewish State...Perhaps in five years, and certainly in fifty, everyone will know it."

When the State of Israel was declared fifty years later, on May 14, 1948, many of its new administrative institutions were already in place, having evolved during the regular Zionist Congresses of the previous decades. Some of these institutions remain to this day.

In Jan. 1960 the ZO changed its name to the World Zionist Organization. The WZO's headquarters is in Jerusalem.

Membership and delegations

Membership in the WZO was open to all Jews, and the right to vote for delegates to the Congresses was secured by the purchase of the Zionist Shekel. Delegations from all around the world, and from many different political backgrounds and religious traditions, took part in each Congress; delegations/parties were mainly grouped by ideology, rather than by geography.

Presidents of World Zionist Organization

Theodor Herzl : (1897 - 1904)
David Wolfsohn : (1905 - 1911)
Otto Heinrich Warburg : (1911 - 1921)
Chaim Weizmann (1st time) : (1921 - 1931)
Nahum Sokolow : (1931 - 1935)
Chaim Weizmann (2nd time) : (1935 - 1946)
David Ben-Gurion (acting) : (1946 - 1956)
Nahum Goldmann : (1956 - 1968)

Chairmen of the Executive of World Zionist Organization (and the Jewish Agency for Israel)

Ehud Avriel : (1968 - 1972)
Louis Arie Pincus : (1968 - Oct 1973) , (head of the executive to 1972)
Arie Leon Dulzin (1st time)(acting) : (Oct 1973 - 1975)
Pinhas Sapir : (1975 - 12 Aug 1975)
Arie Leon Dulzin (2nd time)(acting) : (12 Aug 1975 - 6 Jan 1976)
Joseph Almogi : (6 Jan 1976 - 1978)
Arie Leon Dulzin (3rd time) : (1978 - Dec 1987)
Simcha Dinitz : (Dec 1987 - 14 Feb 1994)
Yehiel Leket (acting) : (Feb 1994 - Feb 1995)
Avraham Burg : (Feb 1995 - Feb 1999)
Sallai Meridor : (25 Feb 1999 - 2005 ) , (acting to May 1999)
Zeev Bielski: (2005 - present)

Sister organizations

The finances of the WZO were conducted by the Jewish Colonial Trust (founded in 1899), and acquisition of land was conducted by the Jewish National Fund (founded in 1901). Keren Hayesod (founded 1920) funded Zionist and Yishuv activities prior to the creation of the state of Israel through enterprises such as the Palestine Electric Company, the Palestine Potash Company and the Anglo-Palestine Bank.

World Zionist Congress

From 1897 to 1946 , a Zionist Congress was held every two years in various European cities, save for interruptions during the two World Wars. Their goal was to build an infrastructure to further the cause of Jewish settlement in Palestine.

As of 2006, the WZO is still holding a semiregular World Zionist Congress, based on the same structure it has had for a century. However, support for the concept and voter turnout are waning. Below is a quote from a speech given that year by Ismar Schorsch, then chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

This week I will leave for Israel to attend the World Zionist Congress along with 37 other delegates from MERCAZ, the official Zionist party of the Conservative Movement in the United States. Despite the overblown rhetoric that will be heard in Jerusalem, no one should imagine that this Congress is a matter of any consequence. Zionism is alive and well, but the World Zionist Organization died a long time ago. In Jewish life we simply can't muster the political will to dismantle organizational structures designed for a specific purpose after they have been crowned with success.

The recent elections in America for the World Zionist Congress prove my point incontrovertibly. Only 150,000 Jews registered to vote and no more than 110,000 of them actually saw fit to vote. Surely more than 2% of American Jewry is devoted to the cause of Zionism! Rather, the existing organizational structure, a relic of the heyday of the pre-state Zionist movement, is no longer adequate to give expression to the nature and expanse of Zionist sentiment in America. And no amount of campaign spending is going to rev up a political machinery encrusted with so much rust.

The 35th World Zionist Congress was held in June, 2006The largest faction in the World Zionist Congress at present is a coalition consisting of Kadima, Labour-Meretz, Mercaz (representing Conservative Judaism) and Reform Judaism.^* Zeev Bielski of Kadima was re-elected WZO Chairman. The next Congress is scheduled for 2010.

External links

National Association for the Advocacy of Modern Zionism
WZO – Doing Zionism
The WZO Hagshama Department (formerly the Student Department)
World Zionist Congress Gallery
Exhibit of election posters for WZC elections across the decades.
brief Schorsch bio at the JTS site
Full text of his December 1997 speech.

Israel and Zionism