World Zionist Organization
organization founded by Theodor Herzl (1897-)
The World Zionist Organization (Hebrew: הַהִסְתַּדְּרוּת הַצִּיּוֹנִית הָעוֹלָמִית, romanized: HaHistadrut HaTzionit Ha'Olamit), or WZO, is a non-governmental organization that promotes Zionism. It was founded as the Zionist Organization (ZO; 1897–1960) at the initiative of Theodor Herzl at the First Zionist Congress, which took place in August 1897 in Basel at the Stadtcasino Basel, Switzerland. The goals of the Zionist movement were set out in the Basel Program.
Operating under the aegis of the WZO are organizations that define themselves as Zionist, such as WIZO, Hadassah, B'nai B'rith, Maccabi, the International Sephardic Federation, the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), and more.
The Jewish Agency for Israel is a parallel organization, with goals, attributes and leadership closely intertwined with those of the Zionist Organization during the years before the establishment of the State of Israel, and to varying degrees after that. Significant changes to the statutes of both organizations occurred in 1952, 1970 and 1979.
History
Founded as the Zionist Organization (Hebrew: הַהִסְתַּדְּרוּת הַצִּיּוֹנִית; HaHistadrut HaTsionit), or ZO, in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland. The ZO's newspaper Die Welt was founded in the same year. It changed its name to World Zionist Organization in January 1960, when a new constitution was adopted (see full text at External links).
The ZO served as an umbrella organization for the Zionist movement, whose objective was the creation of a Jewish homeland in Eretz Yisrael – at that time under the Ottoman Empire and following the First World War, the British Mandate of Palestine.
“World Zionist Organization” enters the record as organization founded by Theodor Herzl (1897-). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what World, Zionist and Organization can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q205386. VIAF identifies the subject as 157929237. The Library of Congress control number is n80076281. Authority coordinates are 32.074, 34.785. 1 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1897, 1960, 1952 and 1970.
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This entry incorporates text from “World Zionist Organization” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.