Editing World Jewish Congress (section)

===Precursor organizations (1917–1936)===
The WJC's precursor organizations were the [[American Jewish Congress]] and the ''Comité des Délégations Juives'' (Committee of Jewish Delegations). The latter was established in March 1919 to represent Jewish communities at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]], and advocated for Jewish minority rights in various countries, including the negotiation of rights for Jews in Turkey in the [[Treaty of Sèvres]] (1920) and special agreements with smaller eastern European states. Headed by Russian Zionist [[Leo Motzkin]], the ''Comité des Délégations Juives'' was composed of delegations from Palestine, the United States, Canada, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, East Galicia, Romania, Transylvania, Bukovina, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Yugoslavia, and Greece, and funded mainly by the [[World Zionist Organization]].<ref>Unity in Dispersion: A History of the World Jewish Congress, World Jewish Congress, New York, 1948, pp. 26–28.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9780631187288_chunk_g97806311872888_ss1-198|author=Blackwell Reference Online|title=Comité des Délégations Juives}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://americanjewisharchives.org/aja/FindingAids/ms0361/ |title= A Collection Overview to the World Jewish Congress Records. 1918–1982.}}</ref>

However, the first impetus for the creation of the WJC came from the [[American Jewish Congress]]. In December 1917, the AJC adopted a resolution calling for the "convening of a World Jewish Congress", "as soon as peace is declared among the warring nations" in Europe.<ref>World Jewish Congress, Unity in Dispersion – A History of the World Jewish Congress, New York 1948, p. 22</ref> In 1923, Motzkin visited the United States and addressed the AJC Executive Committee, "pleading for a World Conference of Jews to discuss the conditions of Jews in various lands and to devise ways and means for effective protection of Jewish rights".<ref>World Jewish Congress, Unity in Dispersion – A History of the World Jewish Congress, New York 1948, p. 28</ref> Conferences co-organized by Motzkin and the AJC leaders [[Julian Mack]] and [[Stephen Samuel Wise|Stephen Wise]] took place in 1926 in London and in 1927 in Zurich, Switzerland. The latter was attended by 65 Jews from 13 countries, representing 43 Jewish organizations, though the main Jewish groups in Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, as well as the [[American Jewish Committee]], declined the invitation to attend.<ref>World Jewish Congress, Unity in Dispersion – A History of the World Jewish Congress, New York 1948, p. 29</ref>

The First Preparatory World Jewish Conference was held in Geneva in August 1932. A preparatory committee was headed by Zionist [[Nahum Goldmann]], who was one of the leading advocates of the establishment of an international Jewish representative body.<ref name="Garai, pg. 10 and 20">Garai, pg. 10 and 20</ref> Goldmann defined the purpose of the World Jewish Congress as follows:

<blockquote>It is to establish the permanent address of the Jewish people; amidst the fragmentation and atomization of Jewish life and of the Jewish community; it is to establish a real, legitimate, collective representation of Jewry which will be entitled to speak in the name of the 16 million Jews to the nations and governments of the world, as well as to the Jews themselves.<ref>World Jewish Congress, Unity in Dispersion – A History of the World Jewish Congress, New York 1948, p. 33</ref></blockquote>

The conference approved plans to set up the new organization in 1934, with headquarters in New York and European offices in Berlin, Germany.<ref name="autogenerated1932">{{cite web|url=http://archive.jta.org/article/1932/08/18/2795280/geneva-conference-approves-call-for-world-jewish-congress-in-summer-of-1934|author=JTA|title=Geneva Conference Approves Call for World Jewish Congress in Summer of 1934, 18 August 1932|date=18 August 1932}}</ref><ref name="americanjewisharchives.org">{{cite web|url=http://americanjewisharchives.org/aja/FindingAids/ms0361/|title= A Collection Overview to the World Jewish Congress Records. 1918–1982.}}</ref> In a manifesto, delegates called upon the Jewish people to unite as the only effective means of averting danger. The Jews, the declaration said, had to rely on their own power with the assistance of such enlightened sections of the world which had not yet been saturated with poisonous anti-Semitism. It added: "The World Jewish Congress does not aim at weakening any existing organizations, but rather to support and stimulate them."<ref name="autogenerated1932"/> The new organization would be based on the "concept of the Jewish people as a national entity, and authorized and obligated to deal with all problems affecting Jewish life".<ref>World Jewish Congress, Unity in Dispersion – A History of the World Jewish Congress, New York 1948, p. 34</ref>

In the summer of 1933, following the rise to power of [[Adolf Hitler]] and his NSDAP in Germany, [[American Jewish Congress]] President Bernard Deutsch called on US Jewish organizations to support the establishment of a World Jewish Congress "to prove the sincerity of their stand" in favor of the embattled Jews of Germany.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.jta.org/article/1933/07/02/2801209/world-jewish-congress-nearerdeutsch-american-delegates-soon-sail-to-confer|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130113011656/http://archive.jta.org/article/1933/07/02/2801209/world-jewish-congress-nearerdeutsch-american-delegates-soon-sail-to-confer|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-01-13|author=JTA|title=World Jewish Congress Nearer—Deutsch; American Delegates Soon Sail to Confer, 2 July 1933}}</ref>