The 39th Zionist Congress, which will make critical decisions regarding the allocation of over $1 billion annually in support for the most vital Jewish needs in Israel and the Diaspora, will be held in Jerusalem in October 2025. One third of the selected delegates will be American and, with a May 4, 2025 voting deadline, American Zionist Jews – including particularly Orthodox Zionists – should make voting a top priority.
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Specially produced beautiful and deeply poignant official postcards were issued for all of the pre-Israel Zionist Congresses (all Congresses after 1948 were held in Jerusalem). In previous Jewish Press articles, I displayed and discussed the cards issued for the first twelve Congresses, and, in thinking about the upcoming Congress, I present here cards and other materials from the Thirteenth Zionist Congress through the Eighteenth Congress, along with a brief discussion and highlights of each.
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The Thirteenth Zionist Congress Carlsbad (August 5-16, 1923)
Official Card of the Thirteenth Congress.
Exhibited here is the Official Card for the Thirteenth Zionist Congress, Jeremiah Comforts Mother Rachel by Josef Budko, which includes the famous and agonizingly beautiful verse from Jeremiah 31:15-16:
So says Hashem: Refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work shall be rewarded, says the L-rd, and the Jews will return from the land of their enemy. And there is hope for your future, says Hashem, and the children shall return to their borders.
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The agenda for the 13th Congress included settlement activity in Eretz Yisrael, the activities of Keren Hayesod, the opening of a university in Jerusalem, and the plan to establish the Jewish Agency.
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This was the first Congress to convene after the League of Nations sanctioned the British Palestinian Mandate. Article IV of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine called for the creation of a Jewish Agency “to secure the cooperation of all Jews who are willing to assist in the establishment of the Jewish National Home” (emphasis added) and, accordingly, the Zionist Organization was renamed the Jewish Agency for Palestine. However, the proposal to include non-Zionists in the Jewish Agency aroused considerable opposition and was defeated by the Congress. (However, Weizmann, who was reelected WZO president by the Congress, succeeded in reversing this policy six years later.)
13th Zionist Congress: Original photograph of the Executive Committee of the Zionist Organization.
The idea of forming Jewish sports clubs in Europe was inextricably linked to the growth of political Zionism and represented a conscious effort to promote the idea that Jews were different only in terms of their religion. As a result of the spread of Jewish gymnastics clubs throughout Europe, the 13th Congress also formed the World Maccabi Union with the aim to “foster physical education, the belief in the Jewish heritage and the Jewish nation, and to work actively for the rebuilding of our country and for the preservation of our people.”
In an important territorial resolution with important future repercussions, the Congress resolved that:
Recognizing that eastern and western Palestine are in reality and de facto one unit historically, geographically, and economically, the Congress expresses its expectation that the future of Transjordan shall be determined in accordance with the legitimate demands of the Jewish people.
Finally, exhibited here is a letter written by Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaKohen Kook to the Thirteenth Congress, in which he calls upon the delegates to issue a public appeal against blasphemy in Eretz Yisrael and urges that measures be taken to preserve the sanctity of Shabbat and kashrut:
Rav Kook’s letter to the 13th Zionist Congress.
Please direct your hearts to the words that emerge from my aching heart that is in open view, because Hashem wants you to succeed… You are brothers… you must urgently find a solution to the two evils destroying our life in the country. The desecration of Shabbat in public and the desecration of kashrut in public…
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The Fourteenth Zionist Congress Vienna (August, 1925)
Official Card of the Fourteenth Congress.
Exhibited here is the official 14th Zionist Congress card, which features a black-and-white photograph of the cypress tree planted by Theodor Herzl in Motsa during his 1898 visit to Eretz Yisrael (which proved to be his only visit to the Holy Land) and an inset portrait of Herzl. The Hebrew text at the top of the postcard is excerpted from the beautiful verse from Jeremiah 31:16: Vesahvu vanim l’gevulam (“And Your children shall return to their own border”).
The Fourteenth Congress, with Chaim Weizmann presiding, was marked by disarray, intense and unresolved left-right rifts, an increase in the great divide between groups advocating socialist and capitalist approaches to settling Eretz Yisrael, and the conspicuous failure of neutrality and uniformity.
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General Zionism was on the verge of collapse, torn apart by the Radical Faction and the Jabotinsky Revisionists, who made their debut at this Congress. The Labor movement continued its uncompromising insistence that primary funding be used to settle indigent agricultural laborers. The General Zionist right-wing and Mizrachi, however, taking note of the great numbers of middle-class immigrants in the massive Fourth Aliyah, saw the perfect opportunity for the Zionist movement to free itself of pressure from labor. Extolling the success of its approach in Tel Aviv, the right urged the Congress to divert funds to urban development and industry and argued that the private Jewish ownership of agricultural and urban land in Eretz Yisrael is the solution to the economic problems faced by the Yishuv. Joined by some delegates from the center, the right called on WZO leaders to abandon their support of cooperative settlements, but Weizmann continued to defend these settlements.
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Instructions distributed to participants in the 14th Congress: “We are honored to present you with a JNF pocket-box, and hope that during the Congress you will have adequate opportunity to use this box to collect funds for JNF. We request that you exchange the full box, or submit it, before leaving the kiosk which sells JNF postage stamps…”
In response to this battle, a group of primarily German delegates formed the Free Zionist Group, which sought to maintain a “neutral” stance of the issue of labor vs. urban development in Eretz Yisrael. To the Revisionists and Mizrachi, they argued that the Zionist enterprise was no mere “transfer” of Jews to Eretz Yisrael but, rather, a social and economic “transformation.” To the Zionist left, they argued that it must accept practical reforms in Zionist economic policy and facilitate homogeneous leadership. The Free Zionists failed, and the Congress adjourned without reaching any clear decision on electing an Executive. The right-wing opposition did not win approval for its new course and the rigid left prevented Weizmann from gaining the legitimacy he sought. However, the Congress did establish the Jewish Agency as the representative of the entire Jewish people and stipulated that “all land acquired by the Agency must be held as public property” for use by the Jewish people.
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The Fifteenth Zionist Congress Basel (August 30-September 11, 1927)
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Exhibited here is the Official Card for the Fifteenth Zionist Congress featuring artist Ephraim Moshe Lilien’s famous 1901 photograph of Herzl on the Rhine Bridge in Basel, Switzerland (with facsimile signature), which has become the definitive pictorial representation of the Father of Modern Zionism. Lilien worked closely with Herzl, whose face he considered to be an emblematic prototype of the “New Strong Jew” and who he frequently used as a model, and his Herzl portraits and his decorations for the Golden Book of the Jewish National Fund also became familiar to Jews all over the world.
Marking the 30th anniversary of the First Congress, a group of 15th Congress delegates who had also attended that First Congress pose for a photograph.
At the beginning of the 15th Congress, Nahum Sokolow was unanimously elected President of the Congress, but the agreements amongst the delegates essentially ended there. The overarching issue became the plan for forming the Jewish Agency, sponsored by the American Zionist and having the support of American non-Zionist Jews, which was approved by the Congress in the face of strong opposition from Jabotinsky and the Zionist Revisionists.
In another action, the Congress, noting that the current trend was that more Jews were leaving Eretz Yisrael than making aliyah, resolved to focus in the future on strengthening and consolidating existing Jewish settlements in Eretz Yisrael while emphasizing that no new settlements should be founded, unless the financial position could ensure their viability and proper support.
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The Sixteenth Zionist Congress Zurich (July 28-August 10, 1929)
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Unlike its predecessor, the 16th Congress – a major international event that featured a spectacular array of prominent Jews – met in an atmosphere of optimism concerning the improvement of the situation in Eretz Yisrael, with the Congress hearing reports that the economy was recovering and that aliyah was increasing. Though Jewish immigration and land purchases had alarmed Arab nationalists, violence was not sparked until later in the aftermath of the 16th Congress. Jabotinsky, always a commanding presence, delivered a speech which threw the Arabs into a panic, as he dared to state unambiguously that a national home meant a Jewish State and that a Jewish majority would be achieved in Eretz Yisrael by a “great colonizing masses” of Jews making aliyah.
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Einstein’s historic June 1, 1929 correspondence to Weizmann conveying his regrets regarding his attendance at the 16th Congress.
Against strong opposition by a vocal minority dominated by the Revisionists, the Jewish Agency was transformed into a Zionist organization for the purpose of representing the Jews in Eretz Yisrael to the British Mandatory authorities in preparation for the establishment of the national homeland promised by Britain in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The Jewish Agency administered life in the Yishuv, worked to help Jews immigrate, acquired land, built new settlements, and helped to develop the cultural life of the Yishuv. On President Chaim Weizmann’s initiative, the new Agency was structured to include non-Zionists (defined as Jewish persons supporting the building of the national home, without identifying themselves with the political aspirations of Zionism), and its leaders devised the political system that worked against the British to achieve independence. This, too, was a contributing factor to Arab anger, which led in short order to the Arab Riots of 1929.
Finally, Albert Einstein was among those invited by Weizmann to address the Sixteenth Congress, at which Weizmann went on to be elected President. Weizmann assured him that his presence would “greatly enhance the importance of the proceedings and afford considerable gratification to all supporters,” but, in our letter, written in German on his personal letterhead, Einstein turns down the invitation on the grounds of poor health.
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The Seventeenth Zionist Congress Basle (June 30-July 17, 1931)
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17th Congress Visitor’s Ticket – overprinted “Press” and issued to a reporter from Eretz Yisrael.
Shortly after the close of the Sixteenth Congress two years earlier, Arab riots and violence against Jews erupted in Eretz Yisrael, but the infamous British Shaw Commission blamed the Zionist movement for fomenting discord and the Passfield White Paper adopted the anti-Zionist recommendations of the Commission. The Congress opened with strong opposition to Weizmann’s pro-British policies and, at the instigation of Jabotinsky and the Revisionists, Weizmann was deposed from the presidency for taking an overly moderate line toward the British and the Arabs.
Revisionist list of delegates elected for the 17th Congress, headed by Jabotinsky. This was the Congress at which the Revisionists withdrew from the Zionist movement.
The Seventeenth Congress was notable for the heated debate between the Revisionists, who demanded that the struggle with the British be intensified so as to lead to the establishment of a Jewish State, and the Brit Shalom and Socialist faction, which demanded that the Zionist leadership openly and unambiguously disassociate itself from the idea of a Jewish majority in Eretz Yisrael. The Congress ultimately rejected Jabotinsky’s proposal that Zionism’s ultimate aim be defined as no less than “the redemption of the Jewish people and the Land of Israel, the revival of the Hebrew language and culture, the re-establishment of Jewish kingship in Israel, and the creation of a Jewish majority on both sides of the Jordan River.”
The failure of the Congress to formally adopt a Jewish statehood proposal led Jabotinsky to angrily declare that “this is not a Zionist Congress;” to tear up his membership card; to reject the presidency of the World Zionist Organization (which went instead to Nachum Sokolow); to his eventual secession from the WZO; and to his founding of an independent New Zionist Organization. The net result was that Weizmann’s essentially pro-British orientation continued – and, in fact, he was later re-elected president of the WZO.
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The Eighteenth Zionist Congress Prague (August 21-September 4, 1933)
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The 18th Congress convened in Prague in the shadow of Hitler’s rise to power and, as such, the significant issue before Congress was the perilous situation of the Jews in Nazi Germany, including in particular the question of whether to join and support a boycott against Germany. The German delegation wrote a letter to Weizmann in London asking him to avoid anti-German rhetoric at the upcoming Congress, asserting that all German Jews were essentially hostages and that it would be a mistake to further provoke and incite the Nazis. In a decision much-criticized from the perspective of history, a majority of the Congress rejected resolutions supporting the growing international anti-German boycott.
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In perhaps an even more criticized decision, the Zionist leadership entered into the Ha’avarah (the “Transfer Agreement”) with the Nazis which, they believed, facilitated German-Jewish emigration to Eretz Yisrael through the Nazi government’s agreement to permit the transfer of Jewish capital in the form of Jewish goods out of Germany. In fact, about 60% of all capital invested in settlement activity in Eretz Yisrael between 1933-39 came from Nazi Germany and, in one of the great ironies of history, Germany was Eretz Yisrael’s second largest trading partner (after Great Britain) during the 1930s. A great majority of Jews opposed the Ha’avarah, which had few defenders outside the WZO, and protests started pouring in while the Congress was yet in session.
Original newspaper photo of a session of the 18th Congress.
In any case, the Congress called upon the world to act expeditiously to take in Jewish refugees, a call which was largely ignored, and it also asked The League of Nations to assist in the “fight for the recovery of the rights of the Jews in Germany.” However, that request was buried in a lengthy discussion of emigration and Palestine and no plan was proposed to put pressure on the world body, and no specific action was called for on the League’s part.
The battle between the Revisionists and the Labor Party increased, provoked in part by the mysterious murder of Labor activist and leader Chaim Arlosoroff on June 16, 1933, shortly before the Congress convened in Prague. The Congress formally adopted the Hatikvah, which had been initially introduced at the 5th Zionist Congress, as the official national anthem of the Jewish people, and it officially resolved that “according to a tradition of many years the azure-white is the flag of the Zionist Federation and the Hebrew People.” Also, for the first time, the Congress decided that all proceedings before it be conducted in Hebrew rather than in German.
