In 1898, Richard Gottheil, who attended the Zionist Congress in Europe, called a New York conference that formed the Federation of American Zionists. To attract support, the Federation began publishing The Maccabean, a monthly, in 1901, and Dos Yidishe Folk in 1909.
The newly formed Young Judaea (1907) and Hadassah (1912) joined the Federation, and at a 1918 convention, the various Zionist branches merged into the ZOA. Louis D. Brandeis was elected honorary president, and Julian W. Mack president.
The Mack administration (1918–21) participated in the Zionist Commission’s work in Palestine. At the Cleveland convention of 1921, Brandeis and his adherents, who differed from Chaim Weizmann and the world leadership in favoring a policy of private economic investment in Palestine, withdrew from the ZOA.
Louis Lipsky, who supported the Keren Hayesod, became president, and the ZOA grew numerically, politically, and financially. In 1924, a merger of the annual Zionist major fundraising efforts created the United Palestine Appeal.
After the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the American Emergency Committee, known as the Council for Zionist Affairs (ECZA) after 1943, began to function. ZOA representatives on the ECZA occupied the front rank in the political struggles and achievements of that period.
During 1946–48, U.S. support for the Jewish state was achieved by the exertions of the mobilized Zionist forces, including ZOA leaders, especially Abba Hillel Silver and Emanuel Neumann.
With the founding of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, the ZOA’s role diminished and shifted to fundraising and public relations on Israel’s behalf. In 1957, a group of prominent Zionists seceded from the ZOA and organized the American Jewish League for Israel.
The ZOA struggled to maintain its position by fostering projects in Israel such as Kefar Silver and the ZOA house in Tel Aviv, and by stressing Zionist education and Hebrew culture in the U.S. ZOA supported the Young Judaea youth movement and several Zionist-oriented summer camps.
It published a periodical, The New Palestine, which later was called The American Zionist. ZOA membership was 147,551 in 1918, 44,280 in 1939, and 165,000 in 1950. Since 1950, membership has declined.
The organization’s influence continued to decline in the 1980s and early 1990s as pro-Israel activism increasingly centered on major lobbying organizations, especially the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and as Jewish defense organizations also took on more pro-Israel advocacy roles.
The ZOA became more prominent again after the 1993 election of Philadelphia activist Morton A. Klein as national president. Klein’s election marked a sharp ideological and organizational shift, as the ZOA became one of the most outspoken American Jewish critics of the Oslo peace process.
While most major pro-Israel organizations supported the 1993 Oslo agreement, the ZOA raised strong objections, citing Palestinian terrorism and statements by Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat that the organization said rejected Israel’s right to exist.
Under Klein, the ZOA also became known for publicly challenging other Jewish communal leaders and organizations over Israel policy. The organization opposed efforts by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations to endorse the peace process when it reflected the policy of Israel’s elected government.
This posture created internal controversy within the ZOA over whether American Jews should publicly criticize policies of an elected Israeli government. Several local chapters, including a prominent Baltimore group, subsequently disaffiliated from the organization.
The ZOA’s shift to the right helped rebuild its fundraising base. It strengthened its ties with Christian Zionist organizations that were increasingly critical of the Oslo process and U.S. involvement in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
During the 1990s, the ZOA established a Washington lobbying operation and became especially active in raising the issue of American victims of Palestinian terrorism. It often clashed with AIPAC and worked closely with right-of-center lawmakers.
In 2005, the ZOA became a leading American Jewish voice against Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza, mounting a vigorous but ultimately unsuccessful campaign against the disengagement plan.
In later years, the ZOA described itself as a leading major American Jewish organization defending Israel and the Jewish people, opposing anti-Semitism and anti-Israel boycotts, and advocating for Jewish rights in historic Jewish lands.
The organization has argued that a Palestinian state would endanger Israel, rejected the characterization of Israel as an “occupier” of its own land, and highlighted its role in campaigns to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, secure U.S. recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, deport Nazi war criminals, and apply federal civil rights protections to Jewish students.
The ZOA also provides legal assistance and campus programming for pro-Israel students.
Sources: Encyclopedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.
“What is the ZOA?,” ZOA.
“Zionist Organization of America,” encylopedia.com.