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For many years, the Jewish Agency for Israel has operated a call center from Jerusalem, which provides information, quickly, efficiently and free of charge, to people interested in making aliyah to Israel. The call center provides round-the[1]clock service in six languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, French and Hebrew). Activity at the call center is intense when there is trouble – such as a security incident or economic crisis – somewhere in the world. During the terror attacks in France in 2015, for instance, the call center staff worked non-stop answering calls, which were often punctuated by tears and shouting, with one purpose: to respond to every question and help the distressed callers. The center helps potential olim understand the process that awaits them, look at possible aliyah tracks and start the registration and preparation process. The staff includes new immigrants who have been through the process themselves, and are now paying it forward and helping others. Some 85% of new olim to Israel received initial help from the call center. The center responds to over 100,000 calls a year; 25,000 of the callers fulfil their desire to make aliyah.

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Photo: The Jewish Agency for Israel call center in Jerusalem, 2017

Keren Hayesod’s wide-ranging activities throughout the world were managed by its office in London, with a relatively small staff of only 15. The Mandatory government in Jerusalem was responsible to the British government, so that work from London was convenient and close to the center of diplomatic activity. However, the Zionist General Council decided that the time had come to carry out its earlier decision to move the Keren Hayesod offices to Jerusalem. The move was carried out gradually, and in order to avoid errors and mishaps in ongoing activities, offices were maintained for a while both in Jerusalem and in London. Along with the move, the Executive also changed. The founders, Naiditch and Zlatopolsky, resigned as directors and were replaced by two long-time activists who would lead Keren Hayesod from Jerusalem for many years, Aryeh Leib Yaffe and Arthur Hantke.

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Photo: Zionist leaders in front of the Keren Hayesod office, left to right: unidentified man, Arthur Hantke, unidentified man. Behind them, Hans Kohn and Leo Hermann, Jerusalem, 1927

In the early years of the state, hundreds of thousands of new immigrants arrived and hundreds of settlements were established – 116 in 1949 alone! Keren Hayesod continued its intensive fundraising activities in order to bring immigrants from throughout the world and establish new settlements. A film produced in honor of Israel’s third Independence Day shows some of the important activities supported by Keren Hayesod. It includes moving clips of children in a youth village during routine activities, Haifa Port at its height, when it was the gateway for many new immigrants, and a dance performance in the area, along with signs declaring “Keren Hayesod settlements – strongholds of might”. Also documented is the establishment of two new settlements – Numbers 501 and 502 – with the support of Keren Hayesod. The film concludes with the arrival of a plane carrying new immigrants from Iraq, in Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, one of the most important aliyah campaigns carried out by Keren Hayesod and the Jewish Agency for Israel.

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Photo: Independence Day 5711 – Israel’s third Independence Day, 1951 Newsreel

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Jerusalem is in turmoil. The country is in an uproar. The attacks and bloodbaths are unending. A vehicle belonging to the nearby American consulate was permitted to enter the courtyard of the National Institutions; the driver, an employee of the American consulate who was well known to the guards, and therefore didn’t arouse suspicion, parked the car and quickly left. One of the security guards decided to move the car, which was blocking the main entrance; the booby[1]trapped vehicle blew up in an earsplitting explosion, causing part of the Keren Hayesod wing to collapse. The results of the attack were horrific: 12 people were killed on the spot, including the director of Keren Hayesod, Aryeh Leib Yaffe. Dozens of others were injured. Months later, from one of the balconies of the building, the People’s Council announced Israel’s independence to the residents of Jerusalem.

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Photo: Attack at the National Institutions Building, 1948

The 1920s. Keren Hayesod is active in Europe, the USA, Canada and South America and also initiates activities in more remote and hard-to-reach countries. Keren Hayesod emissaries can be found in Arab countries, North Africa and Asia. There are three emissaries in Singapore, eight in India, six in Iraq and four in China, for example. They work doggedly and with great energy to recruit investments and donations. The offices in the various countries periodically publish news items, brochures and reports that document the emissaries’ broad-ranging activities. Special emphasis is placed on details of the significant sums of money collected, as can be seen, for example, in the 14-page brochure published by the Shanghai office in July 1924. Keren Hayesod’s worldwide activities, which began in the 1920s, continue to this day in 60 Jewish communities in 40 different countries.

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Photo: Brochure published by the Keren Hayesod office in Shanghai, with details of donations, 1924

In 1921, right after it was established, Keren Hayesod launched a worldwide effort to encourage Jews to feel closer to Eretz Israel, to contribute to the best of their ability in their own way. Surprising, moving and heartwarming examples came from around the globe, in completely unexpected ways. In Vienna, students announced that they would fast one day
a week and donate their daily food money to Keren Hayesod. In 1923, Keren Hayesod made special efforts to reach small, remote villages in far off places. Leib Yaffe, a senior Keren Hayesod emissary in the 1920s and later director of the organization, was amazed by the heartwarming contributions from locals in South America. Most of them were very poor and unable to donate money, but they found unexpected ways to contribute to the Keren Hayesod efforts. We find donations of 50 chickens, sacks of flax and grain. Other families chose to sell jewelry or precious objects, and at a party in a small village, the residents even replicated a photograph of Leib Yaffe and sold it to the guests. In 1936, the small Jewish community of Chile collected 20 tons of fine coffee, which was sold for $5,000 to benefit Keren Hayesod. In the Land of Israel, donors also found original ways to contribute their share, whether in the form of workdays donated to Keren Hayesod, kilograms of barley, parcels of land or the like. This continued even after the establishment of the state. After the Six Day War, there were surprising reports of orphanages where the children decided to donate their weekly pocket money for the cinema, and of teachers donating their monthly salaries. And even today, as part of the bar/bat mitzvah project, Jewish children around the world contribute a portion of the gifts they receive to Keren Hayesod. Throughout its years of activity, Keren Hayesod has continued to encourage Diaspora Jewry to contribute in their own way to the Zionist enterprise in Eretz Israel, and values every contribution, large or small!

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Photo: Recognition tree at the Kiryat Yearim Youth Village, acknowledging the donations of Jewish children around the world who contributed part of their bar or bat mitzvah gifts

History can happen at any time. Just a few years ago, in 2016, something happened that will go down in the annals of Israel’s history: the Karnei Ramon neighborhood was built in Mitzpe Ramon. The new neighborhood, based on “community rental”, provides 24 families with housing for three years at a reduced rent. The idea is to allow families to experience life in Mitzpe Ramon before making the final decision to move to the town. The neighborhood is intended for people who are looking for something a little different. Take, for example, double bassist Ehud Aton, who returned from the US with his wife and hoped to find a community neighborhood. “This is exactly what we were looking for. The neighborhood is not just a home, but also a young community, friends. When you live in a relatively small place, community is super-important. It has given us a soft landing in a new place and helped us realize the dream of building a home here”. Today Ehud Aton is the owner of a home in Mitzpe Ramon, adjacent to the neighborhood that absorbed him.

The neighborhood of Karnei Ramon was founded at the initiative of Keren Hayesod and the Ministry of the Negev and Galilee, in collaboration with the Ayalim Association. It is managed by the OR Movement, together with the youth center of the local council. Karnei Ramon calls upon young people to come and settle in the heart of the desert, and live in a framework that combines community, creativity and communal life against the backdrop of the natural landscape of the cliffs. As for Aton, his latest album, Deep in the Hills, was written in Mitzpe Ramon and he is not the only one who chose to make his home there. Almost 90% of the 24 families living in the neighborhood have decided to remain in Mitzpe Ramon after the end of the absorption period.

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Photo: Ehud Aton with family and friends, 2019

One building in Jerusalem encapsulates great responsibility and a significant amount of history. This building houses the four entities that were responsible for the establishment of the State of Israel: Keren Hayesod, the Jewish Agency for Israel, the World Zionist Organization and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael – the Jewish National Fund. In July 1934, the first party was held there. It was in honor of Nahum Sokolow and was Keren Hayesod’s first event. If the walls could talk, they would tell us that many state matters were conducted in this building. David Ben Gurion sat here as head of the Jewish Agency for Israel; the United Nations decision to establish the State of Israel was celebrated in its courtyard; the first Knesset discussions were held here and it was here that Israel’s first President, Chaim Weizmann, was sworn in. The Keren Hayesod Head Office has been located in this building from the day it was inaugurated in 1933 until today. This building, seemingly no different from any other structure, has been a central juncture in the life of the state. It has witnessed celebrations and tragedies, and countless events that shaped an entire country and the future of all its residents.

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Photo: The National Institutions Building in Jerusalem, 2019

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Photo: The National Institutions Building in Jerusalem, 1937

 

In December 1920, Keren Hayesod published its first Manifesto. “The purpose of the Keren Hayesod is to bring about the settlement of Palestine by Jews on a well-ordered plan and in steadily increasing numbers, to enable immigration to begin without delay, and to provide for the economic development of the country to the advantage of its Jewish and its non[1]Jewish inhabitants alike… No casual charity will suffice. The exceptional effort which is called for today must take the form of self-taxation – steady, persistent, systematic, inspired by the noble Jewish tradition of the Tithe”. It concludes with the following words: “The gates of Palestine are no longer barred from within. The key is in the hands of the Jewish people”.

The Manifesto was translated into 18 languages and disseminated in tens of thousands of copies throughout the world in Jewish newspapers and journals. It aroused great excitement and its impact was immense. All Jews were called upon to join the Zionist effort. This was the first time in the history of the World Zionist Organization that a direct appeal was made to the entire Jewish people to work together. And indeed, the direct appeal and the powerful words penetrated deeply, motivating Jews from around the world to work to support settlement in the Land of Israel, to promote it and fund it. Keren Hayesod’s work had begun!

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Photo: Keren Hayesod’s first Manifesto, published in the HaOlam newspaper, December 23, 1920

Keren Hayesod is, and will continue to be, the world’s leading fundraising organization for the Jewish people and the citizens of Israel. It enables anyone who wants to support Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people to realize his commitment by donating money to Keren Hayesod activities, projects and enterprises. The funds donated are intended to improve the lives of the citizens of Israel and to help strengthen the ties between them and Diaspora Jewry. Keren Hayesod will continue to serve as the bridge that embodies these ties – ties that enable the people of Israel and Friends of Israel worldwide to work together on behalf of a strong Israel in the heart of the Jewish people; a secure Israel that can serve as a home and shield Jews all over; a prosperous Israel that everyone can be proud of. Keren Hayesod activities are based on the lessons learned from the history of the Jewish people, including the fundamental value of mutual responsibility – all of Israel is responsible for one another. We are indeed all one people and responsible for each other, and together, we will realize this mutual responsibility.

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Photo: Keren Hayesod poster, 1990