Zionist Organization of America
Encyclopedia
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), founded in 1897, was one of the first official Zionist organizations in the United States, and, especially early in the 20th century, the primary representative of Jewish Americans to the World Zionist Organization
, espousing primarily Political Zionism.
Today, the ZOA continues to exist as a prominent pro-Israel
group in the United States, with 30,000 current members.
. The FAZ was established at a Baltimore conference where the constitution was adopted by the delegates with Richard Gottheil
elected as president and Stephen S Wise
as honorary secretary. The ZOA was founded to support the founding of the 'Jewish National Home in Palestine'. Along with its sister organization Hadassah
, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, and the Labor Zionist
Po'ale Zion parties, and the Religious Zionist
Mizrachi
, the ZOA served as one of the key voices in early American Zionism. Their voice was limited however, since most American Jews
and the organized American Jewish Committee
were initially strong opponents of the Zionist movement, and worried, with their assimilationist
views, about charges of ‘dual loyalty’, a common antisemitic canard
. The demographics of Jewish Americans were changing rapidly around the turn of the 20th century and by 1920 and the Jewish population of America had increased by over ten times.
When the secular “people’s lawyer” Louis Brandeis
became involved in the movement in 1912, just before the First World War, Zionism started gaining significant support. By 1917, Brandeis' leadership had increased American Zionist membership ten times to 200,000 members, and “thenceforth became the financial center for the world Zionist movement,” greatly surpassing its previous European base of support. In addition early in the war years, he and others established the American Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs, to run Zionist affairs on behalf of the worldwide Zionist Organization, which had been rendered largely impotent because its members were divided by allegiance to the different sides in the conflict.
The Zionist Organization of America was instrumental in mobilizing the support of the U.S. government, Congress, and the American public for the creation of Israel in 1948. Former ZOA presidents of the period included Louis D. Brandeis, Louis Lipsky, Daniel Frisch, Rabbi Wise, and Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver
.
In 1949 the FBI investigated the ZOA under the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act after the organization solicited supporters to accelerate technology transfers to Jews in Palestine. On February 25, 1948 the ZOA was ordered to register as a foreign agent. After a series of conferences with the US Attorney General, the ZOA changed its constitution and "affected a change in the constitution of the World Zionist Organization in an effort to remove itself from agency status. As a result all attempts to procure the registration of the subject organization were dropped."
Following the founding of Israel
, and to unify Jewish representation with the executive branch of US government, the ZOA became a charter member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
, a "personality from the entertainment industry"
as president of its Los Angeles branch. The article states: "Founded in 1896, ZOA had been in decline from its heydays under the leadership of Louis Brandeis
and Rabbi
Abba Hillel Silver
, but has regained some prominence since the energetic and vocal
Klein
assumed the presidency 10 years ago.".
As of 2005, the organization has a national membership of over 50,000. There are active chapters throughout the United States, including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, North Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, South Jersey and Washington, D.C., and Youngstown.
The ZOA today works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations through educational activities,
by combating what it perceives as anti-Israel bias in the media, textbooks, travel guides, and on college campuses. The ZOA's Law and Justice Department has also been at the forefront of legal efforts to combat campus anti-Semitism.
The ZOA also sponsors educational and cultural programs in Israel. The "ZOA House" is a noted cultural center in Tel Aviv
. The ZOA is responsible for founding the Kfar Silver
school, which provides education and vocational training for new Jewish immigrants and others on a 500 acres (2 km²) campus near Ashkelon
. The ZOA's youth division sponsors one of the largest programs for sending young Jews to visit Israel.
The president of the ZOA is Morton Klein
. Its executive director is Gary Ratner.
The ZOA was strongly opposed to Israel's decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip
in 2005. In January 2009, the ZOA issued a statement calling on supporters of the withdrawal to apologize, stating that the "past three years of rapid security deterioration in the southern part of Israel," and that "in these circumstances, it is high time for all MKs, journalists and others, regardless of party affiliation, who supported the process of unilateral withdrawal to apologize to the Israeli electorate.
In January 2009, the ZOA expressed concern about President Barack Obama
's selection of George J. Mitchell
as an envoy to the Middle East. The ZOA criticized Mitchell because he "believes both sides are equally at fault" and that "settlements are the main problem, not the Palestinian people' refusal to end terrorism." The ZOA also stated that "George Mitchell’s success with the IRA-British problem doesn’t translate to success with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli military occupation. However extreme and murderous the IRA was, the goal was not the destruction of Britain and extermination of its people. They wanted only to remove Northern Ireland from British rule. By contrast, the goal of Hamas and the Palestinian nationalist movement is Israel’s destruction and the murder of Jews, not merely the creation of a Palestinian Arab state next to it."
ZOA was explicitly opposed to the selection of Charles W. Freeman, Jr.
as Chairman of the National intelligence Council in February, 2009. He withdrew from the post on March 10, 2009.
In late March 2009, ZOA activists urged the United States Congress to tighten sanctions on Iran and place conditions on U.S. aid to the Palestinians. The ZOA stated that Congress should make the Palestinians comply with commitments to "end incitement and arrest terrorists" before receiving the $900 million in financial assistance that the United States has pledged. However, the ZOA reportedly faced opposition from AIPAC, which had called for the aid to be distributed without these additional conditions. The ZOA activists also expressed support for legislation to enhance transparency for U.S. funds that go to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees and for a bill that withdraws funding for the 2009 Durban Review Conference
.
World Zionist Organization
The World Zionist Organization , or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization , or ZO, in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland...
, espousing primarily Political Zionism.
Today, the ZOA continues to exist as a prominent pro-Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
group in the United States, with 30,000 current members.
History
The ZOA was initially founded in 1896 as the Federation of American Zionists (FAZ), an amalgam of Hebrew societies, Chovevei Zionists and Jewish nationalist clubs that all endorsed the Basle programmeFirst Zionist Congress
The First Zionist Congress was the inaugural congress of the Zionist Organization held in Basel , Switzerland, from August 29 to August 31, 1897. It was convened and chaired by Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionism movement...
. The FAZ was established at a Baltimore conference where the constitution was adopted by the delegates with Richard Gottheil
Richard James Horatio Gottheil
Richard James Horatio Gottheil was an American Semitic scholar, Zionist, and founding father of Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity. He was born in Manchester, England, but moved to the United States at age 11 when his father, Gustav Gottheil, accepted a position as the assistant Rabbi of the largest Reform...
elected as president and Stephen S Wise
Stephen Samuel Wise
Stephen Samuel Wise was an Austro-Hungarian-born American Reform rabbi and Zionist leader.-Early life:...
as honorary secretary. The ZOA was founded to support the founding of the 'Jewish National Home in Palestine'. Along with its sister organization Hadassah
Hadassah
Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America is an American Jewish volunteer women's organization. Founded in 1912 by Henrietta Szold, it is one of the largest international Jewish organizations, with around...
, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, and the Labor Zionist
Labor Zionism
Labor Zionism can be described as the major stream of the left wing of the Zionist movement. It was, for many years, the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizational structure...
Po'ale Zion parties, and the Religious Zionist
Religious Zionism
Religious Zionism is an ideology that combines Zionism and Jewish religious faith...
Mizrachi
Mizrachi (Religious Zionism)
The Mizrachi is the name of the religious Zionist organization founded in 1902 in Vilnius at a world conference of religious Zionists called by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines. Bnei Akiva, which was founded in 1929, is the youth movement associated with Mizrachi...
, the ZOA served as one of the key voices in early American Zionism. Their voice was limited however, since most American Jews
American Jews
American Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are American citizens of the Jewish faith or Jewish ethnicity. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe, and their U.S.-born descendants...
and the organized American Jewish Committee
American Jewish Committee
The American Jewish Committee was "founded in 1906 with the aim of rallying all sections of American Jewry to defend the rights of Jews all over the world...
were initially strong opponents of the Zionist movement, and worried, with their assimilationist
Jewish assimilation
Jewish assimilation refers to the cultural assimilation and social integration of Jews in their surrounding culture. Assimilation became legally possible in Europe during the Age of Enlightenment.-Background:Judaism forbids the worship of other gods...
views, about charges of ‘dual loyalty’, a common antisemitic canard
Antisemitic canard
An antisemitic canard is a false story inciting antisemitism. Despite being thoroughly disproved, antisemitic canards are often part of broader theories of Jewish conspiracies. According to Kenneth S. Stern,Historically, Jews have not fared well around conspiracy theories. Such ideas fuel...
. The demographics of Jewish Americans were changing rapidly around the turn of the 20th century and by 1920 and the Jewish population of America had increased by over ten times.
When the secular “people’s lawyer” Louis Brandeis
Louis Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis ; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish immigrant parents who raised him in a secular mode...
became involved in the movement in 1912, just before the First World War, Zionism started gaining significant support. By 1917, Brandeis' leadership had increased American Zionist membership ten times to 200,000 members, and “thenceforth became the financial center for the world Zionist movement,” greatly surpassing its previous European base of support. In addition early in the war years, he and others established the American Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs, to run Zionist affairs on behalf of the worldwide Zionist Organization, which had been rendered largely impotent because its members were divided by allegiance to the different sides in the conflict.
The Zionist Organization of America was instrumental in mobilizing the support of the U.S. government, Congress, and the American public for the creation of Israel in 1948. Former ZOA presidents of the period included Louis D. Brandeis, Louis Lipsky, Daniel Frisch, Rabbi Wise, and Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver
Abba Hillel Silver
Abba Hillel Silver was a U.S. Rabbi and Zionist leader. He was a key figure in the mobilization of American support for the founding of the State of Israel.-Biography:...
.
In 1949 the FBI investigated the ZOA under the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act after the organization solicited supporters to accelerate technology transfers to Jews in Palestine. On February 25, 1948 the ZOA was ordered to register as a foreign agent. After a series of conferences with the US Attorney General, the ZOA changed its constitution and "affected a change in the constitution of the World Zionist Organization in an effort to remove itself from agency status. As a result all attempts to procure the registration of the subject organization were dropped."
Following the founding of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, and to unify Jewish representation with the executive branch of US government, the ZOA became a charter member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
Current activities
The ZOA received a mixed compliment following the 2005 election of Ed AmesEd Ames
Ed Ames is an American popular singer and actor. He is best known for his pop and adult contemporary hits of the 1960s like "When the Snow is on the Roses" and the perennial "My Cup Runneth Over." He was part of a popular 1950s singing group called The Ames Brothers.-Early life:Born in Malden,...
, a "personality from the entertainment industry"
as president of its Los Angeles branch. The article states: "Founded in 1896, ZOA had been in decline from its heydays under the leadership of Louis Brandeis
Louis Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis ; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, to Jewish immigrant parents who raised him in a secular mode...
and Rabbi
Abba Hillel Silver
Abba Hillel Silver
Abba Hillel Silver was a U.S. Rabbi and Zionist leader. He was a key figure in the mobilization of American support for the founding of the State of Israel.-Biography:...
, but has regained some prominence since the energetic and vocal
Klein
Morton Klein
Morton A. Klein is currently president of ZOA, The Zionist Organization of America.- ZOA :In 1993, while serving as the organization’s Philadelphia chapter president, he was elected national president....
assumed the presidency 10 years ago.".
As of 2005, the organization has a national membership of over 50,000. There are active chapters throughout the United States, including Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, North Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, South Jersey and Washington, D.C., and Youngstown.
The ZOA today works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations through educational activities,
by combating what it perceives as anti-Israel bias in the media, textbooks, travel guides, and on college campuses. The ZOA's Law and Justice Department has also been at the forefront of legal efforts to combat campus anti-Semitism.
The ZOA also sponsors educational and cultural programs in Israel. The "ZOA House" is a noted cultural center in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
. The ZOA is responsible for founding the Kfar Silver
Kfar Silver
Kfar Silver is a youth village in southern Israel. Located near Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 316....
school, which provides education and vocational training for new Jewish immigrants and others on a 500 acres (2 km²) campus near Ashkelon
Ashkelon
Ashkelon is a coastal city in the South District of Israel on the Mediterranean coast, south of Tel Aviv, and north of the border with the Gaza Strip. The ancient seaport of Ashkelon dates back to the Neolithic Age...
. The ZOA's youth division sponsors one of the largest programs for sending young Jews to visit Israel.
The president of the ZOA is Morton Klein
Morton Klein
Morton A. Klein is currently president of ZOA, The Zionist Organization of America.- ZOA :In 1993, while serving as the organization’s Philadelphia chapter president, he was elected national president....
. Its executive director is Gary Ratner.
The ZOA was strongly opposed to Israel's decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan , also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", and "Hitnatkut", was a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005, to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and from...
in 2005. In January 2009, the ZOA issued a statement calling on supporters of the withdrawal to apologize, stating that the "past three years of rapid security deterioration in the southern part of Israel," and that "in these circumstances, it is high time for all MKs, journalists and others, regardless of party affiliation, who supported the process of unilateral withdrawal to apologize to the Israeli electorate.
In January 2009, the ZOA expressed concern about President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
's selection of George J. Mitchell
George J. Mitchell
George John Mitchell, Jr., is the former U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace under the Obama administration. A Democrat, Mitchell was a United States Senator who served as the Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995...
as an envoy to the Middle East. The ZOA criticized Mitchell because he "believes both sides are equally at fault" and that "settlements are the main problem, not the Palestinian people' refusal to end terrorism." The ZOA also stated that "George Mitchell’s success with the IRA-British problem doesn’t translate to success with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli military occupation. However extreme and murderous the IRA was, the goal was not the destruction of Britain and extermination of its people. They wanted only to remove Northern Ireland from British rule. By contrast, the goal of Hamas and the Palestinian nationalist movement is Israel’s destruction and the murder of Jews, not merely the creation of a Palestinian Arab state next to it."
ZOA was explicitly opposed to the selection of Charles W. Freeman, Jr.
Charles W. Freeman, Jr.
Charles W. Freeman, Jr. is an American diplomat, author, and writer. He has served for the State and Defense Departments in many different capacities in the past thirty years, with the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs calling his career "remarkably varied"...
as Chairman of the National intelligence Council in February, 2009. He withdrew from the post on March 10, 2009.
In late March 2009, ZOA activists urged the United States Congress to tighten sanctions on Iran and place conditions on U.S. aid to the Palestinians. The ZOA stated that Congress should make the Palestinians comply with commitments to "end incitement and arrest terrorists" before receiving the $900 million in financial assistance that the United States has pledged. However, the ZOA reportedly faced opposition from AIPAC, which had called for the aid to be distributed without these additional conditions. The ZOA activists also expressed support for legislation to enhance transparency for U.S. funds that go to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestinian refugees and for a bill that withdraws funding for the 2009 Durban Review Conference
Durban Review Conference
The Durban Review Conference is the official name of the 2009 United Nations World Conference Against Racism , also known as Durban II. The conference ran from Monday 20 April to Friday 24 April 2009, and took place at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland...
.
Suggested reading
- Louis Lipsky, Thirty Years of American Zionism and rainbows, Ayer Publishing, 1977. ISBN 9780405102639 - Reprint of v. 1 of Selected works of Louis Lipsky published in 1927. (The first 30 years of the ZOA)