chiefshmerel: Zionism was founded by Nathan Birnbaum in 1883, before Leon Pinsker. Birnbaum is the one who actually recruited and influenced Theodore Herzl to become a Zionist. Birnbaum was elected the first Secretary-General of the Zionist Organization (WZO) at the First Zionist Congress, which he helped organize.
In the 1910s Birnbaum became a Baal Teshuva. He completely renounced Zionism and became a very vocal anti-Zionist. And he was appointed as the General Secretary of the Agudas Yisroel.
Which is the very reason why the Zionists wrote Birnbaum, who founded Zionism, out of the history of Zionism. What could be more embarrassing to them that their very founder became a Baal Teshuva, an anti-Zionist and a leader in Agudas Yisroel?