AMERICAN ZIONIST MOVEMENT (AZM)

AMERICAN ZIONIST MOVEMENT (AZM), umbrella organization for American Zionist organizations. AZM is composed of 21 Zionist membership organizations and agencies. It was created to be a programming, educational, and information arm for American Zionism. AZM is the successor organization of the American Zionist Emergency Council (organized in 1939), the american zionist Council (1949), and the American Zionist Federation (May 1970). Each successive organization was generated by changing political and social circumstances in the United States and the Middle East. Established in 1993, AZM set out to heighten the profile and relevancy of organized Zionism in the U.S. through greater activism on a wide range of political and social issues of concern to American Jews. Like all members of the WZO, AZM's unifying principles are those of the Jerusalem Program. The American Zionist Movement has its own mandate for action in the United States. It has set our own goals and objectives to involve more Jews in Zionism and to take an activist posture on the Jewish scene. AZM defends Israel's cause with vigor and confidence. It offers the next generation of young Zionists opportunities for leadership and action in the Zionist cause; it attempts to link young Jewish students confronting the problems on American campuses today and to strengthen the links between Jewish faculty and students. It promotes and enhances creative Jewish continuity and aims at forging stronger bonds between American Jews and Israel that result from personal contact with Israel.