Central Zionist Archives - History of The CZA - Landmarks in The Archives' History

Landmarks in The Archives' History

1937: The personal papers of Theodor Herzl were transferred from Vienna to Palestine.

1948: With the establishment of the State of Israel, the CZA expanded the contents of its collections. Many files of the General Council (the Va'ad Leumi) and of various departments of the Jewish Agency were transferred to the Archives, including the files of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency.

1955: Dr. Alex Bein was appointed Director of the Central Zionist Archives. Among the objectives that he set for himself, were the locating of archives of Zionist personalities and associations that survived the Holocaust, including the archives of Max Nordau and Nahum Sokolow, and their transfer to Israel.

1956: The 24th Zionist Congress convened in Jerusalem, and defined the status and the functions of the Central Zionist Archives as the "historic archives of the Zionist Movement and Organization and the Jewish Agency". The Congress passed a resolution that all the offices and institutions of the Executive of the Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency are obliged to make all the files accessible to the Archives that are no longer necessary for their ongoing work.

1985: The construction of the new building began in proximity to the International Convention Center in Jerusalem. The architect Moshe Zarhi designed the new building. The building has six floors: two upper floors where there are the reading hall, a lecture room, a lobby for exhibitions and the offices of the Archives, and four underground floors where the various collections are stored.

1987: The new building of the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem was inaugurated.

2000's: The computerization and digitization of the various materials of the Archives progressed at full speed. The computer system contains about 2,876,000 records, and about 12,518, 000 scanned documents, photographs, maps, posters and graphic material.