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Keren Hayesod emissaries represent the organization in various communities around the world and lead campaign activities. They are carefully chosen after an extensive selection process and are trained as an elite group to serve as Keren Hayesod’s executing arm in the field. At the end of a lengthy training 9 10 period, the emissaries are sent to communities around the word, serving as a bridge with Keren Hayesod activities in Israel. Although the emissaries are responsible for fundraising, their role does not end there. It is their responsibility to faithfully represent the key values of Keren Hayesod; to strengthen the solidarity with Israel; to connect Diaspora Jewry and the Jews of Israel; and to strengthen the Keren Hayesod family everywhere, no matter how remote. Keren Hayesod’s early emissaries included Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Chaim Weizmann, Nahum Sokolow, Menachem Ussishkin, Haim Nahman Bialik, Albert Einstein and many others, who realized very early on the importance of Keren Hayesod and its critcal calling in spreading its messages around the world. Today Keren Hayesod has many emissaries around the globe, who continue to work with great dedication on behalf of the Jewish people and integrate into the local community during their shlichut.

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Photo: List of KH emissaries from the Keren Hayesod booklet
Din Vachesbon (Financial Reckoning), 1921

On Friday, July 18, 1947, at 2 AM, a British destroyer circled the clandestine immigration ship Exodus, carrying 4,500 Holocaust survivors, and demanded that it surrender. The crew tried to resist, but five additional destroyers surrounded the ship and prevented it from escaping. Ladders and bridges were laid from the battleships to the deck, and British soldiers boarded the Exodus, in an attempt to take it over, but resistance was fierce. The ma’apilim – clandestine immigrants – fought mightily. It was only after three hours, when the ship had sustained serious blows on all sides, and its commanders feared that it would go down with all the people on board, that an order to surrender was given. The ma’apilim were transferred to deportation ships, which transported them back to detention camps in Europe – from which they had fled in the hope of reaching the Land of Israel. The deportation was widely covered and documented, with the eyes of the world following what was taking place. The determination of the ma’apilim resonated worldwide, and eventually influenced the United Nations to recognize the State of Israel. Although the Exodus was the largest, it was only one of 140 ships that brought over 100,000 ma’apilim to the Land of Israel from the mid-1930s until the establishment of the state. The clandestine immigration campaigns, supported by Keren Hayesod, raised the morale of the Jewish people, which was in crisis after the scale of the Holocaust became apparent. The hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees who had survived the Holocaust were housed in camps in Europe that were managed by the Jewish Agency for Israel, which cared for them and prepared them for the day when they would be able to make aliyah.

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Photo: Ma’apilim on the clandestine immigration ship Exodus in the port of Haifa, before being deported back to Europe, 1947

Imagine a moving ceremony, which concludes with the singing of Hatikva. How would you feel if you were one of the only ones singing without understanding the significance of the words? Many IDF recruits come from new immigrant families, with little, if any, familiarity with the Jewish heritage and culture. Some of them are not even considered Jewish according to Halacha (Jewish law). Although these soldiers serve their country, sometimes even putting their lives on the line, their Israeli and Jewish identity is incomplete. Some of them spoke about feelings of embarrassment at Kabbalat Shabbat services and on festivals, because they were unfamiliar with the stories, customs and songs of these occasions. The Jewish Agency for Israel’s Nativ program, carried out with the support of Keren Hayesod, is designed specifically for such soldiers. Every year 1,700 soldiers spend several weeks learning about their Jewish identity in an experiential framework that includes lectures, discussions and fascinating trips around Israel. “The Nativ course contributes very significantly to the social resilience of the State of Israel”, says senior IDF commander, Maj. Gen. Hertzi Halevi. “It creates an affinity with the State of Israel, the people of Israel and the Land of Israel in those who were not born here and did not grow up with this sense of belonging”. Many of the soldiers attest that understanding Israel’s background and history gives them greater motivation to fight. Many continue on to a special conversion program to obtain halachic status as Jews. The topic of Jewish identity and connecting young people to their Jewish and Israeli heritage is an important part of many Keren Hayesod projects.

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Photo: Nativ project participants, 2019

The South was experiencing difficult times. At the height of  Operation Cast Lead in 2008, Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, 11 km from the border, had to be evacuated in an emergency situation. It was within rocket range and lacked protection and was therefore declared to be at special risk. Departments were moved to basements and shelters, and about half of the patients were sent home.

The NICU incubators and delicate preemies were transferred, within minutes, under very difficult conditions, to the shelter. But it wasn’t only then that emergency evacuations had to be carried out. In the ensuing years also, evacuation became a painful routine every time the situation in the South heated up. The hospital management had tried for years to raise money to build safe, protected structures, including an NICU in which efficient treatment could be provided without removing the preemies from a safe environment. In recent years, thanks to donations raised with the help of Keren Hayesod, modern new protected premises that are secure and safe have been built.

Since the founding of the state until the present, Keren Hayesod has supported the establishment and renovation of many hospitals throughout Israel: Nahariya Medical Center, Poriya, Rambam, Bnei Zion, Ziv, Hillel Yaffe, Assaf Harofeh, Ichilov, Sheba, HaEmek, Assuta Ashdod, Hadassah Mt. Scopus, Hadassah Ein Kerem, Barzilai, Soroka, Wolfson and Schneider. Thanks to Keren Hayesod, all the citizens of Israel enjoy better medical treatment.

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Photo: NICU Barzilai Hospital, 2014

On the eve of the Six Day War, there was a national state of emergency in Israel and a sense of pervasive fear. Israel needed every bit of help it could get. On May 20, 1967, Keren Hayesod announced an emergency campaign and sent special emissaries abroad. In this difficult hour, Keren Hayesod once again discovered that world Jewry responded to its pleas. Unending queues of donors lined up in front of Keren Hayesod offices in major cities.

The tremendous response was extremely moving. In Canada alone, $25 million was collected two days before the outbreak of the war. Jews from all sectors of the population contributed to the campaign in different ways. Some sold jewelry; others mortgaged their homes; communities and synagogues sold property; children in orphanages contributed the money for their weekly visit to the cinema; teachers gave a month’s salary.

Everyone wanted to give, to express solidarity with the beleaguered State of Israel. Among the donors were also many well-known artists and actors, including Peter Sellers, Danny Kaye, Arthur Rubinstein, Marc Chagall and Serge Gainsbourg. Keren Hayesod collected a total of $151 million. The joint effort of Keren Hayesod and the Jewish Agency for Israel proved once again that the State of Israel and Jewish communities around the world are inseparable and that the bond between them is stronger than any threat.

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Photo: Collage of photographs from the Six Day War

On the morning of November 18, 2014, Yaacov Ehrlich, a 52-year-old paramedic, received an alert to go to a Jerusalem synagogue that he was familiar with. A shooting attack had left many people wounded. While Ehrlich was tending to one of the victims, fierce shooting broke out at the other end of the synagogue, during which he himself was injured. The two terrorists were killed. Ehrlich was taken to the hospital along with the other victims, most of whom he knew from synagogue services.

Ehrlich had volunteered with rescue organizations since 10th grade. As the son of a doctor, he grew up in a home in which helping others, self-sacrifice and a sense of mission were routine. He had been present at many serious terror attacks, but this time, in light of his own injury, the trauma was worse than ever. While he was still in the hospital, a team from the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Fund for Victims of Terror contacted his wife, Avishag, and provided immediate financial assistance. Ehrlich was surprised, and quickly wrote a letter of thanks that was full of gratitude to the Fund. The Jewish Agency for Israel’s Fund for Victims of Terror, which is supported by Keren Hayesod donors, provides assistance to many terror victims in Israel and is an important part of Israel’s civilian resilience.

It is unique in providing immediate assistance, within 24 hours, to terror victims, and in the fact that in times of national emergency, it also provides broad services to help populations under attack, for example, respite activities for thousands of children in communities bordering the Gaza Strip. The work of the Jewish Agency for Israel and Keren Hayesod in helping victims and preventing terror isn’t limited to Israel. As a result of the growing wave of global antisemitism and the number of terror attacks against Jewish communities, in 2012 the Jewish Agency for Israel established the Security Assistance Fund, which provides security and protection for over 300 communities and institutions in 60 countries around the world. It was established with the help of an investment of millions of dollars, generously contributed by Keren Hayesod donors.

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Photo: Activities funded by Keren Hayesod for children from Gaza border communities

It was with tremendous excitement that, on June 16, 1994, Keren Hayesod representatives greeted delegates to the organization’s World Conference at the airport in Casablanca, Morocco. The gathering – the first ever to take place in an Arab country – was preceded by fears, due to its sensitive and controversial nature.

At the same time, from the moment they landed, the Keren Hayesod delegates understood that they were taking part in an event of unparalleled significance. With the blessing of the king of Morocco, but under heavy security, they took part in a moving tour of the Jewish community in Casablanca; they visited the remaining Jewish schools and learned about the contribution of the Moroccan Jewish community to building the State of Israel.
On the third day of their visit, conference participants went to Rabat, where they enjoyed a magnificent feast prepared by local Jewish women. Shimon Farkash, a cantor from Sydney, began to sing Jewish melodies. Everyone was moved to tears and joined in the singing.

At that moment, the Keren Hayesod delegation and the small Jewish community of Rabat were one. Everyone felt extremely proud that a handful of Jews had managed to preserve their people’s traditions under difficult conditions. Following the visit to Morocco, the World Conference sessions were held in Israel. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin spoke, recognizing Keren Hayesod activities and the unique conference held in Morocco.

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Photo: Conference participants at the airport in Morocco, 1994

1920. The San Remo international conference endorses the British Mandate for Palestine. The Jewish Yishuv in Eretz Israel is in crisis and loses half its residents. Huge sums of money are needed to bring hundreds of thousands of Jews from around the world to settle the land, establish towns and neighborhoods and pave roads. One thing is clear: there is an urgent need for change, along with an immediate solution to raise enormous resources. Committees meet again and again, and are unable to make any decision. There is a deadlock.

Isaac Asher Naiditch, a Jewish merchant, publishes a proposal in March 1920 to set up “a foundation fund” to collect contributions from Jews around the world to support and finance the Zionist enterprise. Many people oppose the idea, maintaining that it is outdated and irrelevant, but Naiditch continues to promote his vision. He speaks at the Zionist Congress in London in July 1920, and says: “The Foundation Fund [Keren Hayesod] must give us the ability not only to start the work – but also to finish it. This is a time of responsibility for our people, and a time of trial. It is incumbent upon you to prepare our people to emerge from this trial with a victor’s wreath on our heads”. The proposal was passed by a large majority. So many hands were raised that there was no need to count the votes. Enthusiasm ran high. Finally, a solution had been found. Keren Hayesod could be the device for managing the money designated to build the Jewish home in the Land of Israel.

Photo: The Zionist Congress, London, July 1920