The World Zionist Organization

The World Zionist Organization, or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland.
The ZO served as an umbrella organization for the Zionist movement, which aimed at creating a Jewish State of Israel in the region then known as Palestine. Theodor Herzl, with Max Nordau, organized the first Congress.
When the State of Israel was declared 51 years later on May 14, 1948, many of its new administrative institutions were already in place, having evolved during the regular Zionist Congresses of the previous decades. Some of these institutions remain to this day.