Theodor Herzl is considered the founder of political Zionism. He wrote The Jewish State in 1896 and organized the first congress in 1897, though earlier thinkers and settlers laid much of the groundwork.

When did Zionism begin?

The name dates from 1890 and the organized movement from 1897, but the hope of return it drew on is as old as the Jewish diaspora.

What does the word Zion mean?

Zion was a hill in Jerusalem. In the Bible and in Jewish prayer it became a name for Jerusalem and for the land as a whole.

What was the Basel Program?

The platform adopted at the first congress in 1897. It called for a publicly recognized home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.

How is Zionism different from Judaism?

Judaism is a religion and way of life thousands of years old. Zionism is a modern national movement. Many Jews identify with it, but not all Zionists are religious and not all religious Jews have been Zionists.

Is criticizing Israel the same as opposing Zionism?

No. Criticism of a government or policy is ordinary political debate. Opposing Zionism means rejecting Jewish self-determination itself, which is a different and broader position.

Zionism Reference Guide

What Is Zionism? Meaning, Origins, and History

Zionism is one of the most used and least explained words in public debate. This guide sets out what it means, where it came from, and how it developed, with dates you can check.

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What does Zionism mean?

Zionism is the movement for Jewish self-determination in the Land of Israel. The word comes from Zion, one of the biblical names for Jerusalem and, by extension, for the land itself.

As a political program it dates from the 1890s. As an idea it is much older, rooted in two thousand years of prayers and customs that looked toward a return.

Why SWC explains this history

The Simon Wiesenthal Center works to counter hatred through education, and accurate history is part of that work.

Clear definitions make room for real disagreement about policy while making it easier to recognize when a political word is being used to target Jews as a group.

Where the word comes from

Zion was originally the name of a hill in Jerusalem. In the Hebrew Bible it came to stand for the city as a whole and for the bond between the people and the place, and Jewish prayer has used it that way ever since.

The term Zionism was coined in 1890 by the Viennese writer Nathan Birnbaum, who used it for the growing effort to rebuild Jewish national life in the ancestral land.

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Before there was a movement

For centuries the hope of return lived in religious practice rather than politics. Daily prayers face Jerusalem, the Passover meal ends with the words next year in Jerusalem, and small communities of scholars and pilgrims lived in Jerusalem, Safed, Hebron and Tiberias.

In the nineteenth century that hope met new pressures and new ideas: national movements across Europe, the pogroms that followed 1881 in the Russian Empire, and the failure of legal equality to end discrimination in Western Europe.

How the political movement began

The modern movement took shape over about two decades, through small settlement efforts on the ground and diplomacy abroad.

1882: the first organized wave of immigration, known as the First Aliyah, arrives from Eastern Europe
1894: the Dreyfus Affair in France convinces the journalist Theodor Herzl that legal equality alone will not protect Jews
1896: Herzl publishes Der Judenstaat, usually translated as The Jewish State
1897: delegates in Basel found the Zionist Organization and adopt the Basel Program
1909: Tel Aviv is founded, and the first kibbutz, Degania, follows a year later
1917: Britain issues the Balfour Declaration supporting a national home for the Jewish people
1922: the League of Nations confirms the British Mandate for Palestine, which includes the Balfour commitment
1947: on November 29 the UN General Assembly votes to partition the territory into two states
1948: Israel declares independence on May 14

Many movements under one name

Zionism was never a single program. Political Zionists such as Herzl sought an internationally recognized charter. Practical Zionists focused on buying land and building farms and towns. Labor Zionism, associated with David Ben-Gurion, joined national goals to socialist ones and built the kibbutz movement.

Cultural Zionism, led by the essayist Ahad Ha'am, cared less about a state than about a renewed Hebrew culture. Religious Zionism understood the return in spiritual terms, and Revisionist Zionism, founded by Ze'ev Jabotinsky, pressed for a larger state and a stronger defensive posture.

Debates inside Jewish life

Jewish communities argued over Zionism from the start. Some Orthodox leaders held that only the Messiah could bring about a return, while many Reform Jews in the nineteenth century saw Judaism as a religion rather than a nationality. Socialists in the Jewish Labor Bund preferred to fight for rights where Jews already lived.

After the Holocaust, support grew sharply among Jews worldwide, though disagreement about borders, religion and politics continued, as it does in Israel today.

Zionism after 1948

Once Israel existed, Zionism came to describe support for the state's existence and for Jewish immigration to it, rather than the campaign to found it. The Law of Return, passed in 1950, gave Jews worldwide the right to immigrate and become citizens.

Today the word covers a wide range of views. People who call themselves Zionists hold sharply different positions on Israeli governments, borders and policy, so the label alone says little about any specific political opinion.

Reading the word in current debate

Because the term is used in so many ways, it helps to slow down and ask what a speaker actually means by it.

Check whether it refers to the historical movement or to present-day politics
Ask whether a criticism targets a specific policy or a whole people
Notice when the word is used as a coded stand-in for Jews
Look for dates and sources rather than slogans
Compare the claim with how Zionists themselves describe their views

Keep the full reference

This guide sits alongside 19 SWC learning guides. Get those guides as one reference PDF, plus new guides by email as they are published.

Common Questions

Who founded Zionism?: Theodor Herzl is considered the founder of political Zionism. He wrote The Jewish State in 1896 and organized the first congress in 1897, though earlier thinkers and settlers laid much of the groundwork.
When did Zionism begin?: The name dates from 1890 and the organized movement from 1897, but the hope of return it drew on is as old as the Jewish diaspora.
What does the word Zion mean?: Zion was a hill in Jerusalem. In the Bible and in Jewish prayer it became a name for Jerusalem and for the land as a whole.
What was the Basel Program?: The platform adopted at the first congress in 1897. It called for a publicly recognized home for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.
How is Zionism different from Judaism?: Judaism is a religion and way of life thousands of years old. Zionism is a modern national movement. Many Jews identify with it, but not all Zionists are religious and not all religious Jews have been Zionists.
Is criticizing Israel the same as opposing Zionism?: No. Criticism of a government or policy is ordinary political debate. Opposing Zionism means rejecting Jewish self-determination itself, which is a different and broader position.

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