Milestones in Israeli History

1997 - 100th Anniversary of The First Zionist Congress
One hundred years ago Herzl inaugurated the First Zionist Congress in Basle and organized the Zionist Movement. The central goal of Zionism was the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel.

On May 15, 1948, David Ben Gurion announced the establishment of the State of Israel. At the time, the Jewish population in Israel totaled 600,000. Over the years this figure has increased to around five million.

Approximately, 70% of world Jewry lives outside Israel. Today, the largest concentration of Jews resides in the United States. World Jewry faces a serious rise in the incidence of intermarriage, assimilation, and other problems which endanger the identity and future of some Jewish communities. In 1990 world Jewish population was 12.8 million. This figure is expected to dwindle to 12 million by the year 2010.

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