Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) ignores seven (7) Foreign Agent Registration Act orders - 1938-1960

Documents

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), a U.S. subsidiary of the World Zionist Organization, was organized in Pittsburgh in 1918. The ZOA was invited by the U.S. Department of State to begin registering as the foreign agent of the World Zionist Organization immediately after passage of the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).  The ZOA refused, citing it was an American organization working to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine, an objective supported by congressional resolutions.  The ZOA cited funding flows to its affiliate organizations, rather than receipt of international funding.  ZOA refused to register on the grounds that it did not receive any subsidies from the World Zionist Congress.

In July of 1941, the Near East Division of the State Department again pushed for ZOA registration arguing that the ZOA was a subsidiary corporation despite the flow of funding.  The State Department had sent an employee on an undercover visit to ZOA offices, determining it was an overtly political—as opposed to religious—organization and therefore not subject to the FARA exemptions available to religious entities such as the Vatican. The State Department found that ZOA was "subject to the direction" of the WZO and ordered the ZOA to register.  ZOA again refused, stating that as a New York corporation is was merely an "affiliate" of the WZO.

The US Department of Justice, upon taking over FARA enforcement,  internally found that the ZOA was subject to registration, noting in June of 1943 that the "...threat of prosecution or actual prosecution by the Department of Justice for failure to register seems to be the only remaining effective action.  But I doubt that such action would be warranted under the circumstances at this time..."  In October, the OSS (intelligence agency precursor to the CIA) provided input on Zionist activities overseas indicating registration, but by November some Justice Department employees began detecting political pressure.  "..the pressure was on somewhere in the government... it would be unwise to do anything further...under the circumstances do not desire for the moment to write to the Zionist Organization of America..."

On February 25, 1948 the DOJ issued another FARA order to the ZOA citing undue delays in responding to a matter "under consideration for some time."  With US recognition of the state of Israel immanent, the Attorney General ordered that the registration question be delayed for 60 days. By May, frontline DOJ employees were hearing rumors that a high DOJ official privately told ZOA representatives that registration would not be necessary, and that they need not "fear prosecution. " Despite ongoing FBI reports of PR and political activities by the ZOA, the Justice Department agrees to quash the registration order if the ZOA alters some of its corporate articles defining relationships with the WZO.  As noted by the head of the FARA section, the DOJ never actually confirmed whether the exonerating changes to the WZO/ZOA constitutions are ever made.

These files were obtained from the US Department of Justice Records Group 60 held at the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park, MD via a Freedom of Information Act request filed on September 8, 2011.

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