World Zionist Organization

The World Zionist Organization (Hebrew: ההסתדרות הציונית העולמית‎ HaHistadrut HaTsionit HaOlamit), or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization (Hebrew: ההסתדרות הציונית‎ HaHistadrut HaTsionit), or ZO, in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland. It changed its name to World Zionist Organization in January 1960.

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. When the State of Israel was declared 51 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. The WZO today consists of the following institutions: The World Zionist Unions, international Zionist Federations; and international organizations that define themselves as Zionist, such as WIZO, Hadassah, Bnai-Brith,Maccabi, the International Sephardic Federation, the three streams of world Judaism (Orthodox, Conservative, Reform), delegation from the CIS – Commonwealth of Independent States (former Soviet Union), the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), and more. The WZO's headquarters was permanently moved to Jerusalem, after being located over the years in capitals of Europe, including Berlin and London, and most recently in New York City, in the United States.