Stencil circular, written on behalf of the Executive Central Committee of the First Zionist Congress, on official letterhead stationary of the Executive Committee of the Zionist Congress ("Bureau des Zionisten-Congresses") with hand-written signatures of all five committee members, including Herzl. Vienna, December 7, 1897. German.
In the circular, published three months after the First Zionist Congress in Basel, the Executive Central Committee members request to emphasize the importance of regular transfer of the "Schekel" funds, on the 1st and 15th of every month, to enable the routine and continuous activities of the committee. The circular states that the Executive Central Committee deals with many matters for which this funding is essential and the committee members are sure that the recipients of the circular will do all they can to act speedily and efficiently in the spirit of their common goal. The Executive Central Committee requests to receive the funds in cash, by registered mail, immediately, otherwise it "cannot be held responsible for the results".
At the First Zionist Congress held in Basel at the end of August 1897, several decisions were reached whose aim was to realize the vision of the Zionist movement. These included the goal of implementing the "Basel Plan" (which determined that the ambition of the Zionist movement is to establish a homeland for the Jewish People in Eretz Israel) and to establish various institutions that would serve to promote and realize the ideals of the movement, the first of these being the World Zionist Organization.
In the framework of founding the World Zionist Union, a General Central Committee of 18 members was elected, and from these an Executive Central Committee consisting of five members, all residents of Vienna, was appointed. The Executive Central Committee, whose role was to serve as a high-level management body – a sort of 'government' – of the General Central Committee, was headed by Dr. Theodor Herzl.
The five members of the first Executive Central Committee were Dr. Theodor Herzl [the father of Zionism; Chairman], who served as chairman, Dr. Oser Kokesch [attorney, one of the first members of the 'Kadima' student association, a founder of the Viennese Zionist 'Admat Yeshurun' association and member of the first committee of 'Otzar Hityashvut HaYehudim'], who served as secretary, Johann Kremenetzky [wealthy Zionist entrepreneur and industrialist, pioneer of the European electricity industry, first chairman of the JNF], Dr. Alexander Mintz [attorney, participated in the committee for formulating the 'Basel Plan', member of the Committee for Practical Settlement], and Dr. Moritz (Moshe) Tobias Schnierer [author and personal doctor of Theodor Herzl, who also accompanied Herzl on his visit to Palestine in 1898, co-founder of the 'Kadima' student association, the 'Ahavat Zion' association and the 'Admat Yeshurun' association]. These five members of the Executive Central Committee are the signatories of this document.
[1] page (+ three empty pages), 29 cm. Stains to margins. Tears to margins, some reinforced with tape. Filing holes, one torn.
Rare. Only a handful of documents with the signatures of all five members of the first Zionist Executive Central Committee are known to exist (perhaps because Dr. Mintz resigned from the Executive Central Committee after less than a year).