The Basel Program

The First Zionist Congress

1897

The aim of Zionism is to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law.

The Congress contemplates the following means to the attainment of this end:

  1. The promotion, on suitable lines, of the colonization of Palestine by Jewish agricultural and industrial workers.
  2. The organization and binding together of the whole Jewry by means of appropriate institutions, local and international in accordance with the laws of each country.
  3. The strengthening and fostering of Jewish national sentiment and consciousness.
  4. Preparatory steps toward obtaining government consent, where necessary, to the attainment of the aim of Zionism.

 

 

Translator unknown.

 

Credits

First Zionist Congress, “Basle Program,” trans. and reprinted in The Jewish Chronicle, Sept. 3, 1897.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 7.

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Creator Bio

The First Zionist Congress

1897

The First Zionist Congress took place in Basel (Basle), Switzerland, August 29–31, 1897. Organized by the founding figure of political Zionism Theodor Herzl, the congress, in which some two hundred delegates from seventeen countries took part, consolidated separate Zionist groups and gave them a common political agenda. The delegates formulated a statement of goals and principles, known as the Basel Program, which became the platform of the Zionist Organization founded at the congress. The First Zionist Congress also elected Herzl president of the Zionist Organization, adopted “Hatikvah” as the organization’s anthem (later adopted by the State of Israel as its national anthem), and began practical discussions of how to realize Zionist goals.

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