Abbreviation | ZOC |
---|---|
Merged into | Canadian Zionist Federation |
Established | 1899 |
Founded at | Montreal, Quebec |
Dissolved | 1978 |
Type | Non-profit |
Headquarters | Montreal (1898–1970) Toronto (1970–1978) [1] |
Location | |
Formerly called | Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada (1898–1921) |
The Zionist Organization of Canada was a political and philanthropic organization [2] that acted as the official voice of Zionism in Canada from 1898 until 1978. It was a member of the World Zionist Organization. [3] It was known as the Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada until 1921.
The Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada was founded in Montreal in 1898, a year after the First Zionist Congress was held in Basel, with Clarence I. de Sola as its first president. [4] It held its first general meeting in November 1899. [5] By 1907, the Federation had chapters in 42 cities and towns across Canada. [6]
The organization changed its name to the Zionist Organization of Canada (ZOC) in 1921. [7] By the 1930s, it was the largest Zionist group in Canada. [8] Until Canadian Jewish Congress was reconstituted in 1934, the ZOC also acted as a representative organization for Canadian Jewry. [9]
The ZOC ran regular programming and published a periodical, The Canadian Zionist. [1] It fundraised for the Keren Hayesod, the Jewish National Fund, and the United Israel Appeal. [7] The ZOC also oversaw organizations like Canadian Hadassah-WIZO and Young Judaea. [1] [10]
The ZOC moved to Toronto in 1970. It was dissolved in 1978, and its functions were absorbed by the Canadian Zionist Federation. [1]
Zionism is a nationalist movement that emerged in the 19th century to enable the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, a region roughly corresponding to the Land of Israel in Jewish tradition. Following the establishment of the modern state of Israel, Zionism became an ideology that supports the development and protection of the State of Israel as a Jewish state.
The World Zionist Organization, or WZO, is a non-governmental organization that promotes Zionism. It was founded as the Zionist Organization at the initiative of Theodor Herzl at the First Zionist Congress, which took place in August 1897 in Basel, Switzerland. The goals of the Zionist movement were set out in the Basel Program.
The Canadian Jewish Congress was, for more than ninety years, the main advocacy group for the Jewish community in Canada. Regarded by many as the "Parliament of Canadian Jewry," the Congress was at the forefront of the struggle for human rights, equality, immigration reform and civil rights in Canada.
Canadian Jews, whether by culture, ethnicity, or religion, form the fourth largest Jewish community in the world, exceeded only by those in Israel, the United States and France. As of 2021, Statistics Canada listed 335,295 Jews in Canada. This total would account for approximately 1.4% of the Canadian population.
A.J. Freiman Limited, or Freimans, was a landmark department store at 73 Rideau Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1918 by Archibald J. Freiman.
Theodor Herzl was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist and political activist who was the father of modern political Zionism. Herzl formed the Zionist Organization and promoted Jewish immigration to Palestine in an effort to form a Jewish state.
The First Zionist Congress was the inaugural congress of the Zionist Organization (ZO) held in the Stadtcasino Basel in the city of Basel on August 29–31, 1897. Two hundred and eight delegates and 26 press correspondents attended the event. It was convened and chaired by Theodor Herzl, the founder of the modern Zionism movement. The Congress formulated a Zionist platform, known as the Basel program, and founded the Zionist Organization. It also adopted the Hatikvah as its anthem.
The United Jewish People's Order is a secular socialist Jewish cultural, political and educational fraternal organization in Canada. The UJPO traces its history to the founding of the Jewish Labour League Mutual Benefit Society in 1926.
Abraham de Sola was a Canadian rabbi, author, Orientalist, and academic. Originating from a large renowned family of rabbis and scholars, De Sola was recognized as one of the foremost leaders of Orthodox Judaism in North America during the latter half of the nineteenth century.
Camp Massad of Canada is a Zionist Jewish summer camp in Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, Quebec, with headquarters in Montreal. It was founded in 1947, with the creation of Massad Alef on Lac Quenouille in the Laurentian Mountains. At its peak Massad had nearly 400 campers.
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine—a region partly coinciding with the biblical Land of Israel —was flawed or unjust in some way. Anti-Zionism includes, for example, criticism of the current policies of the state of Israel as well as moral, ethical, or religious criticism of the idea of a Jewish nation-state, in contrast to a secular state.
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Labor Zionism or socialist Zionism refers to the left-wing, socialist variation of Zionism. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations, and was seen as the Zionist sector of the historic Jewish labour movements of Eastern Europe and Central Europe, eventually developing local units in most countries with sizable Jewish populations. Unlike the "political Zionist" tendency founded by Theodor Herzl and advocated by Chaim Weizmann, Labor Zionists did not believe that a Jewish state would be created by simply appealing to the international community or to powerful nations such as the United Kingdom, Germany, or the former Ottoman Empire. Rather, they believed that a Jewish state could only be created through the efforts of the Jewish working class making aliyah to the Land of Israel and raising a country through the creation of a Labor Jewish society with rural kibbutzim and moshavim, and an urban Jewish Proletariat.
Canadian Young Judaea is the largest Zionist youth movement in Canada. The movement was founded as the youth wing of Canadian Hadassah-WIZO and the Zionist Organization of Canada in 1917, and is affiliated with HaNoar HaTzioni. Young Judaea operates five Jewish summer camps across Canada.
Aaron David Meldola de Sola was the first native-born Canadian rabbi. He succeeded his father Abraham de Sola as leader of the Shearith Israel synagogue in Montreal upon the latter's death in 1882.
Canadian Zionist Federation, or CZF, is a nonprofit organization that promotes Zionism, founded in 1967.
Zionist antisemitism or antisemitic Zionism refers to a phenomenon in which people simultaneously harbour feelings that are Zionist and antisemitic. In some cases, support for Zionism and Israel may be promoted for explicitly antisemitic reasons. Historically, this type of antisemitism has been most notable among Christian Zionists, who may perpetrate religious antisemitism while being outspoken in their support for Jewish sovereignty in Israel due to their specific interpretation of Christian eschatology. Similarly, people who identify with the political far-right, particularly in Europe and the United States, may support the Zionist movement because they desire a Jewish exodus from their country and see Zionism as the least complicated method of achieving this goal and satisfying their racial antisemitism.
Clarence Isaac de Sola was a Canadian businessman, author and Zionist leader based in Montreal.