There is some dispute as to the exact number of participants at the First Zionist Congress. However, the approximate figure is 200, sixty nine of whom were delegates from various Zionist societies and the remainder were individual invitees. In attendance were also ten non-Jews who were expected to abstain from voting.

 There were seventeen women present at the Congress, some of them in their own capacity and others who accompanied representatives. The card above belonged to a Ms Eva Cohen a student from Hamburg who attended with her sister, Leah and father Guntar Gavrielle Cohen. While women participated in the First Zionist Congress, they did not have voting rights. Full membership rights were accorded them the following year, at the Second Zionist Congress.

(Commemorative Postcard of the) Conference Hall where the First Zionist Congress was held in Basel, 1897.

The First Zionist Congress was called by Theodor Herzl as a symbolic parliament for those in sympathy with the implementation of Zionist goals. Herzl had planned to hold the gathering in Munich, but due to local Jewish opposition he transferred the gathering to Basel, Switzerland. The Congress took place in the concert hall of the Basel Municipal Casino. 

The First Zionist Congress was opened on August 29th, 1897 and was attended by some 204 participants from seventeen countries. Following a festive opening in which the representatives were expected to arrive in formal dress, tails and white tie, the Congress got down to the business at hand. The main items on the agenda were the presentation of Herzl's plans, the establishment of the World Zionist Organization and the declaration of Zionist plans as formulated in the Basel Program (see below). Herzl was elected President of the Organization and Max Nordau one of three Vice-Presidents. 

Thereafter the Zionist Congress met first every year (1897-1901) and then every second year (1903-1913, 1921-1939). After the Second World War, the Congress met intermittently, approximately every four years until the present time.

 "The Basel Programe," 1897

 This programe provided the guidelines for the work of the Zionist Organization, from its foundation at the First Zionist Congress (August 1897) untill the establishment of the  State of Israel. A committee headed by Max Nordau submitted a version of the Program on the 29th day of Congress deliberations (August 30). It read:

"The aim of Zionism is to create for the Jewish people a home in Eretz-Israel secured by law."
 
 

Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Eretz-Israel secured under public law. The Congress contemplates the following means to the attainment of this end:

1) The promotion by appropriate means of the settlement in Eretz-Israel of Jewish farmers, artisans, and manufacturers.

2) The organization and uniting of the whole of Jewry by means of appropriate institutions, both local and international, in accordance with the laws of each country.

3) The strengthening and fostering of Jewish national sentiment and national consciousness. Preparatory steps toward obtaining the consent of governments, where necessary, in order to reach the goals of Zionism.
 
 

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Modern History Sourcebook: The Balfour Declaration

This letter to Lord Rothschild, by the British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, was aimed at Jewish support for the Allies in the First World War. The letter, knon as the "Balfour Declaration" became the basis movement to create a Jewish state in Palestine. The letter was published a week later in The Times (London) of London
 

Foreign Office
November 2nd, 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild:

I have much pleasure in conveying to you. on behalf of His Majesty's
Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:

His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge
of the Zionist Federation.

Yours,
Arthur James Balfour
 
 

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(c)Paul Halsall Aug 1997
halsall@murray.fordham.edu