ABSTRACT
The American Zionist Emergency Council [= AZEC] was a pressure group which functioned between 1943 and 1949. The term “pressure group” is not used here in any pejorative sense, but rather, following Harmon Zeigler's definition, as “… an organized aggregate which seeks to influence the content of governmental decisions without attempting to place its members in formal governmental capacities.” 1 The AZEC became the political arm of American Zionism, and its primary objective was to secure United States' support for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. This paper will be limited to the background, organization, and activities of the AZEC in its relations with the American public, both Jewish and non-Jewish.
