The Central Zionist Archives preserves more than 1,500 personal papers of the leaders and activists of the Zionist Movement and the Yishuv. Some of these archives are very small (one or two files), but most of them are very large (tens of boxes). The list of personal papers includes well-known figures in Zionist history, such as: Theodor Herzl, Nahum Sokolow, David Wolffsohn, Max Bodenheimer, Henrietta Szold, Eliezer Ben Yehuda, Haim Arlossoroff and other functionaries and professionals, but also the papers of less well-known people who dealt with important aspects of Zionism and the development of the yishuv. The personal and public correspondence, diaries, family letters and photographs, are preserved in their archives and contribute to an understanding of their character and their work.
The collection of personal archives has been constantly growing. As the fields of study have changed over the years, so has the range of personal papers that the CZA is interested in collecting and preserving. Recently, the archives of men and women, who are perhaps less well known, but were active and influential in their specific areas of expertise, have been accepted for preservation by the CZA. For example, we are happy to have the papers Rudolfina Menzel, who developed the field of dog training in Palestine, and Sarah Bavli, who dealt with matters of nutrition, as well as the papers of people active in Zionist and Jewish affairs overseas, such as Yitzchak Harkavi, an active Zionist in South America, and Jean Halperin, a prominent activist amongst the Jews of France.