The Zionist Movement

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The Zionist movement is the modern national movement of the Jewish people, of which the State of Israel is an outcome.

As a social and national movement, it gathered together several different streams of thought: Herzl’s political Zionism, Ahad Ha’am’s spiritual Zionism, Jabotinsky's Revisionism, the Labor movement’s socialist Zionism, religious Zionism and more.

Herzl founded the Zionist movement in the wake of Hovevei Zion, a movement that had operated about twenty years earlier and which had been the spirit behind the First Aliyah. These movements developed as a result of a cultural awakening and a revival of Hebrew literature that began in Europe as early as the 18th century.

The National Library of Israel maintains a collection of Zionist journals and newspapers from around the world, from the days of Hovevei Zion to the present. In addition, extensive collections of posters, postcards, leaflets and invitations to events can also be found at the Library.

There are also collections documenting major Zionist enterprises such as the founding of the Hebrew University and the National Library, as well as the personal archives of key leaders and intellectuals such as Ahad Ha’am and Max Nordau.