Zionism in Canada

Following the first Zionist International Congress, held in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897, Zionist societies dedicated to the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine sprang up all over Canada. In 1899 Clarence Isaac de Sola was chosen president of the Federation of Zionist Societies of Canada, and he became its major ideologue and chief spokesman throughout the dominion. De Sola thought that obtaining a legally secured home for the Jewish people in Palestine despite the presence of an Indigenous population, would enhance the physical and economic development of that homeland, and awaken Jewish national and spiritual consciousness through the development of Hebrew literature and Jewish culture.