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Fifty years of achievement, devotion and care are were celebrated in 1970 by the more than 250,000 members of Wizo (Women's International Zionist Organization) in its 50 federations throughout the world.
Established in 1920 by a group of dedicated Zionist women in England, headed by Rebecca Sieff, Wizo's original aims, which were to care for and educate Jewish children and youth and prepare women and girls for agricultural life in Eretz Israel have now been widely expanded through its network of institutions and services in Israel. The organization now concerns itself with the entire family, including infants, children, youth, women, the old, the handicapped, also encompassing those from the Arab and Druze communities.
The seat of the family of Wizo, World Wizo headquarters, is located at the Rebecca Sieff Wizo Center in Tel Aviv, from where the World Wizo Executive is linked with its far-flung federations through the constant interchange of ideas and work in the spheres of Jewish and Zionist-oriented education, culture and publicity and through the managements of the network of institutions and services in Israel, many of which are projects of the federations. The federations are further centered toward Israel through visits to Israel by members under the auspices of Wizo's Tourist Department and through regular meetings of the World Executive held in Tel Aviv. World Wizo is also represented on ECOSOC and UNICEF, as an international nongovernmental organization, is a member of the World Zionist Organization and has a seat on the Executive of the Jewish Agency.
Israel's Wizo Federation, encompassing over 90,000 volunteer members throughout the country, devotes itself to the care of new immigrant families and their absorption, extends its services to every Wizo institution in Israel, and its diversified educational program is designed to develop its civic consciousness through lectures, seminars, and excursions.
Wizo's 50 federations abroad, located on every continent, help to strengthen their own communities by fostering Jewish tradition and values and teaching the Hebrew language. They also serve as a nucleus of the Zionist movement in their countries, promoting aliyah as its highest expression.
Two homes for babies in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, accommodating 550 infants (including prematures) and toddlers, care for orphans and children from broken homes, in addition to maintaining special wards for the treatment of youngsters before and after surgical operations.
While their mothers work, some 4,600 other children from six months to four years of age, are accepted at Wizo's day creches, toddlers' homes, and kindergartens throughout Israel, many of which are located in development areas and new immigrant neighborhoods.
Thirteen secondary schools sponsored by Wizo train 3,500 pupils every year for such vocations as farming, dressmaking, graphic and fine arts, home economics, child care and laboratory and secretarial work as well as provide a full high school academic program. In addition, 49 youth clubs and centers offer educational, hobby and sports activities for 14,000 underprivileged children and youth.
Wizo maintains 183 women's centers and clubs, a considerable number of which serve as social and cultural centers for many isolated communities, where courses in sewing and cooking, lectures and seminars, and instruction for home industries are all provided. Sewing and mending centers and carpet-weaving workshops provide employment for the elderly and handicapped, traveling libraries bring literature to outlying settlements, and 18 legal Advisory Bureaus give legal aid to women of small means.
Wizo's contribution to the development of the Stale of Israel has been through its ever-widening scope of activities and the continual adjustment of its program to accord with ever-changing needs. Wizo continues to be a creative and dynamic force in the life of this country.
