World Zionist Organization

ההסתדרות הציונית העולמית

Identifier: 441
Type of Entity: Corporate Body

Dates of Existence

Founded in 1897

History

The World Zionist Organization was founded by the architect of modern Zionism, Theodor Herzl, in 1897 as an international federation of diverse Zionist groups. Under Chaim Weizmann’s leadership, the organization was pro-British and played a pivotal role influencing the Jewish Agency in distributing Palestine Certificates. These permits meant life and death in late 1930s and early 1940s. The WZO was roundly criticized for favoring young and healthy pioneers, leftist Zionists, and non-Orthodox Jews.

Sources

Dictionary of the Holocaust : Biography, geography, and terminology / E.J. Epstein, P. Rosen. – Westport, 1997. – p. 343

Related Items

There are several ways to be more specific in your search query:

"Phrase": Search an exact match of your query, e.g. "Member lists"
+Phrase: Given word has to be in the result, e.g. +Gestapo
-Phrase: Exclude given word from search, e.g. -Gestapo

Use the following syntax to restrict the search to specific fields:

field:"phrase": For instance, you can find all descriptions that have the phrase "Auschwitz Birkenau" in their titles by searching for title:"Auschwitz Birkenau".

The following fields are currently available:

identifier
title
creator
person
place
subject
address

Displaying items 1 to 20 of 27

Archives of the Association of Immigrants from Czechoslovakia (J125)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn557386
- English
- 1940-1990
- 74,016 digital images, JPEG 23 microfilm reels, 16 mm
- Updated 1 year ago
Working files of the Association of Immigrants from Czechoslovakia, located in Israel.
Association of Immigrants from Germany (and Austria) - Association of Immigrants from Central Europe - "Aliya Hadasha Party", Tel-Aviv (J18)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn43568
- English
- 1932-1997
- 20,861 digital images, PNG 18 microfilm reels, 35 mm
- Updated 1 year ago
Contains records related to Jewish immigrants to Palestine (and later the State of Israel) from various countries in Central Europe, including Germany and Austria, starting from the immediate pre-war period. Includes correspondence and reports on various immigration-related and political issues, speeches by members of the Association, communication with various organizations, and protocols of the “new immigration” management center. Also includes the papers of Dr. Max Kreuzberger featuring correspondence regarding Jewish property restitution, war compensation and matters regarding immigrati...
Association of Immigrants from Poland, Tel Aviv (J20)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn44056
- English
- 1940-1959
- 11,367 digital images, TIFF 11 microfilm reels, 35 mm
- Updated 1 year ago
Contains records of the Association of Immigrants from Poland that was active in Israel, 1942-1961. Includes meeting protocols, various name lists, questionnaires, and newspaper clippings relating to assistance to Jewish refugees and Holocaust survivors by giving out loans, finding work, and reuniting families after the war. In addition, the organization created name lists of Holocaust survivors still remaining in Europe, and of those who immigrated to Palestine/Israel.
Benjamin Sagalowitz papers Nachlass Dr. iur. Benjamin Sagalowitz (1901-1970)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn44326
- English
- 1917-1999
- 8,038 digital images, PDF
- Updated 1 year ago
This collection relates to Benjamin Sagalowitz’s activities as a journalist and includes records on several trials relevant to World War II and the Holocaust that took place over a period of three decades, including the trial of David Frankfurter, the Nuremberg Trials, the Eichmann Trial, and the Auschwitz Trial in Frankfurt. Includes also family photographs, correspondence with numerous individuals (including Robert M. W. Kempner, Erwin Lagus, Prof. Dr. Carl Ludwig, Jacob Zucker et al.) and Jewish as well as Zionist organizations, a letter (together with archival documentation) from Sagalo...
Correspondence of Dr. Arie Leo Goldhammer Zahavi from his time in Vienna until his aliya to Eretz Israel, 1939, and his time in Eretz Israel until his death, 1949; documents related to his activities as one of the Austrian Zionist leaders, condolence letters, eulogies and press clippings in his memory
1. O.30 - Documentation regarding the Jews of Austria, mainly during the Holocaust period
- ארכיון יד ושם / Yad Vashem Archives
- O.30/242
- English, Hebrew
- pages 300 Correspondence Official documentation Personal documents Study Newspaper clippings Original Typewritten original Typewritten Original
- Updated 9 years ago
Correspondence of Dr. Arie Leo Goldhammer Zahavi from his time in Vienna until his aliya to Eretz Israel, 1939, and his time in Eretz Israel until his death, 1949; documents related to his activities as one of the Austrian Zionist leaders, condolence letters, eulogies and press clippings in his memory The documentation includes: - Correspondence of Dr. Arie Leo Goldhammer with Zionist and Jewish organizations and institutions from his time in Vienna until 1939; - Correspondence of Dr. Arie Leo Goldhammer Zahavi with Zionist and Jewish organizations and institutions from his time in Eretz Is...
David Ben-Gurion
- דוד בן-גוריון
- EHRI Personalities
- Person
- 1886-1973
- Updated 7 years ago
Chairman of the Jewish Agency, and the First Prime Minister of the State of Israel
Emissaries Section (S86)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn43569
- English
- 1946-1964
- 35,274 digital images, PNG 33 microfilm reels, 35 mm
- Updated 1 year ago
Contains records of Israeli delegations in various countries of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, including the records of Zionist organizations abroad such as Youth Aliyah and Keren Hayesod. Features reports on the Jewish situation including Jewish refugee and DP camps after the war, negotiations with immigration agencies, cultural material that was prepared and sent around the world, and various other documentation.
General Zionists
- Zionist Organization in Poland
- EHRI Corporate Bodies
- Corporate Body
- Updated 9 years ago
Founded in 1916

The General Zionists, founded in 1916 under the umbrella of the World Zionist Organization, was aiming to establish a homeland for the Jews in Palestine. In Poland, Zionists strove for national and cultural autonomy, protected Jewish economic rights and interests, strengthened national identity, and organized emigration to Palestine. General Zionists were divided into three factions: Et Liwnot (A time to build), the moderate group; Al Hamishmar (On guard), which had a leftist social program; and the New Zionist Organization (Revisionists), the radical right wing.
Geneva Office of the Zionist Organization and of the Jewish Agency for Palestine (L22)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn44054
- English
- 1925-1948
- 113,052 digital images, JPEG 147 microfilm reels (digitized), 35 mm
- Updated 1 year ago
Contains various records from the Geneva Office of the Zionist Organization and of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, including correspondence of the World Zionist Organization offices; the Jewish Agency offices in London; newspaper offices in different countries; the Jewish National Fund and the Keren Hayesod in different countries; and correspondence with Jewish and Zionist organizations and with the League of Nations. Also among the records are correspondence regarding the transfer of funds from various countries; immigration to Israel; the Zionist Congress; reports about the persecution o...
Immigration Department of the Jewish Agency, Office in Istanbul (L15)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn43614
- English
- 1937-1949
- 152,603 digital images, JPEG 202 microfilm reels (digitized), 35 mm
- Updated 1 year ago
Contains various records from the Immigration Department of the Jewish Agency; including reports on persecution of Jews; reports on immigration from various countries; on integration and immigration of youth as well as of senior Zionists activists; name lists from Theresienstadt; name lists of immigrants and candidates for immigration; and documentation of searches by relatives in Europe. Also includes financial statements and correspondence regarding items brought by immigrants to Israel, and correspondence regarding “Project Afghanistan.” Contains correspondence with the World Center Pion...
Jewish Youth Group, "Berith Trumpeldor," Vienna Jüdischer Jugendverein "Berith Trumpeldor", Wien (Fond 715)
1. Russian State Military Archives (Osobyi) records
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn610840
- English
- 1932-1938
- 2 microfilm reels (partial), 16 mm 410 digital images, JPEG
- Updated 1 year ago
The entire Fond 715, 1929-1938 (45 Dela) contains organization’s charts, correspondence with local leadership, circulars, orders and reports. Includes lists of members and their military trainings. Majority of collection comprises of correspondence with Betar divisions in Germany and with Zionist organizations: Jewish Youth Front of Austria, Jewish State Party, Keren Tel Chai, Brit Hakana’im, Mizrachi of Austria; the Jewish academic organization Bar-Giora and Caritas, the Revisionist Zionist Party, Betar Hatzair, Maccabee, Betar of Yugoslavia, Betar of Czechoslovakia, The Union of Jewish Wa...
Joachim Prinz
- German Zionist rabbi.
- EHRI Personalities
- Person
- 1902-1988
- Updated 7 years ago
רב ציוני
Palestine Office of the Jewish Agency, Trieste (L48)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn44055
- English
- 1939-1965
- 22,545 digital images, TIFF 22 microfilm reels, 35 mm
- Updated 1 year ago
Contains records of the Palestine Office of the Jewish Agency, Trieste, and a branch of the Jewish Agency’s Aliyah department. The Palestine Office was involved in distributing Aliyah certificates, financial matters, transferring immigrants’ luggage and property to Israel and documenting information regarding Jewish property from Italy which was stolen by the Nazis during the Second World War. The collection also contains correspondence with other Jewish Agency offices in Italy and various name lists of immigrants, hospitalization records before immigration, correspondence and agreements wi...
Personal documentation regarding Augusta Weldler-Steinberg, born in 1878, head of the Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO) in Zurich, Switzerland
1. O.30 - Documentation regarding the Jews of Austria, mainly during the Holocaust period
- ארכיון יד ושם / Yad Vashem Archives
- O.30/54
- English, Hebrew
- 1932-1942
- pages 7 Research article Biography Article Newspaper clippings Official documentation Original Typewritten original
- Updated 10 years ago
Personal documentation regarding Augusta Weldler-Steinberg, born in 1878, head of the Women's International Zionist Organization (WIZO) in Zurich, Switzerland Articles in memory of Augusta Weldler-Steinberg who founded WIZO in Zurich and served as its leader; Dr. Weldler-Steinberg was active in WIZO until the day she died, 10 November 1932; she was an intellectual and a historian who studied the history of the Jews of Switzerland during the Middle Ages and educated Jewish youth in the spirit of Zionism.
Private papers of Fritz Ullmann (A320)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn557384
- English
- 1897-1975
- 65,954 digital images, JPEG 34 microfilm reels, 16 mm 9 microfilm reels, 35 mm
- Updated 1 year ago
Personal papers of Fritz Ullmann (1902-1972). The collection consists of memorandums and correspondence relating to Jewish immigration, wartime rescue activities, the sending of relief packages into concentration camps and ghettos, and the Zionist movement.
Questionnaire of the Executive committee of the World Zionist Organization in Lwow, for the Zabie branch, 10/1934
1. O.32 - Documentation regarding the Jews of the Soviet Union from the Holocaust period
- ארכיון יד ושם / Yad Vashem Archives
- O.32/155
- English, Hebrew
- pages 9 Official documentation xerox
- Updated 10 years ago
Questionnaire of the Executive committee of the World Zionist Organization in Lwow, for the Zabie branch, 10/1934 Questionnaire of the Executive committee of the World Zionist Organization in Lwow, for the Zabie branch (Kosow district, Stanislawow region), 10/1934.
Records of Ignacy Schwarzbart Akta Ignacego Szwarzbarta (Sygn. 543)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn607803
- English
- 1937-1940
- 846 digital images, PDF
- Updated 1 year ago
The collection contains correspondence, notes, press clippings, articles, regulations, speeches, reports, and correspondence. Materials relate to the following subjects: Aid rendered by Schwarzbart to the Jewish emigrants and war refugees from Poland; Jewish emigration, editing of the Jewish newspaper “The Future” in France in 1940 and newspapers in other countries; and Schwartzbart’s activity in the National Council of the Republic of Poland in France during 1939-1940.
Records of the regional headquarters of the Jewish Youth Organization "Hanoar Hazioni" (Fond 337, opis 1)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn37215
- English
- 1935-1939
- 8,321 digital images, JPEG 7 microfilm reels (digitized), 35 mm
- Updated 1 year ago
The collection contains correspondence of the Jewish Youth Organization " Hanoar Hazioni” in Warsaw with the Zionist organizations in Poland and worldwide. Records relate to the activities of the branches of the organization throughout Eastern Galicia (arranged alphabetically by locality, Russian alphabet). Contains financial, membership records, including various lists of members, representatives, questionnaires, and lists of young Jews making "aliyah" to Palestine.
Representation of Polish Jewry, Tel Aviv Reprezentacja Żydowstwa Polskiego, Tel Aviv (J25)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn44089
- English
- 1940-1946
- 61,552 digital images, TIFF 14 microfilm reels, 35 mm
- Updated 1 year ago
This collection includes lists of Polish refugees in the Soviet Union; testimonies of survivors about the destruction of the Jewish communities in Poland; correspondence with the Polish Provisional Government regarding the actions and attitudes regarding Polish Jews in the present and future.
Rescue Committee of the Jewish Agency for Palestine (S26)
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- irn43691
- English
- 1939-1948
- 109 microfilm reels (digitized), 35 mm digital images,
- Updated 1 year ago
Contains various records and correspondence on the situation of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe and on Jewish refugees in Palestine. Includes reports prepared by envoys in Istanbul, correspondence concerning Australian, Argentinean, South African, Iraqi and other Jewish communities, search requests for missing relatives, aid requests from individuals in Palestine and abroad, requests for the release of prisoners from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, correspondence regarding compensation, assistance to children and youth, and the situation of Jewish refugees after the Holocaust. Contains t...