Author: idoz

In August 1956, after Morocco had gained independence and many Jews felt unsafe, the government of Israel, together with the Zionist General Council, passed an emergency resolution designed to help the Jews of Morocco in particular and North Africa in general. Keren Hayesod quickly launched a special campaign, and the wheels of clandestine immigration from Morocco began to turn. The Mossad established a special division, the Misgeret, that worked to smuggle Jews out of Morocco and bring them to Israel as quickly as possible. It was dangerous work and anyone who was caught was tortured, sometimes to the point of death. The large amount of money raised by the special campaign, some $25 million, in addition to the regular campaigns, was used not only to bring Jews out of Morocco but to prepare for their absorption in Israel. Between 1956 and 1961, several thousand Jews were rescued. In 1961, the efforts met with enormous success and an agreement was signed with the new king, Hassan II.

Within four years of the initial operation, more than 100,000 olim arrived from Morocco and were absorbed in Israel. Some of the mass aliyah efforts of these years entailed visits by Jewish Agency emissaries to remote villages and towns in Morocco’s legendary Atlas Mountains. Rare documentation from that period shows the arrival of these emissaries at an isolated Jewish village; at the end of their visit, all the Jews pack up their few belongings and set out on the journey to Israel, accompanied by the Zionist emissaries.

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Photo: A new immigrant from Morocco arriving in Israel, April 1953

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At the end of the 1990s, Jean Lavie immigrated to Israel from France and, like many other immigrants, suffered the difficulties of absorption. “I tried to envision my future, where I might be in 10 years’ time, and I saw nothing good”, he said. “A lot of uncertainty”. In 2007, Jean arrived at the Ramat Hadassah Youth Village, where he felt secure for the first time. “This was my home, I am happy that I came to this place. The things that it gave me – like a bed, four walls and a roof, food and the chance to study – may appear trivial to most people. But these were things I never had. I understood that the village was giving me everything I needed to succeed – from here on, it was up to me”. Jean studied machine engineering, joined the army and then began to work in a high-tech company. Today he hopes to complete his doctorate.

Ramat Hadassah is one of four youth villages supported by Keren Hayesod, together with Ben Yakir, Hadassah Neurim and Kiryat Yearim. These villages continue a tradition that began in the days of Youth Aliyah, which was strengthened in the 1950s with the support of Keren Hayesod. Over the years, more than 300,000 at-risk youth completed their studies at the youth villages, among them well-known figures like Maj. Gen. (res.) Aharon Ze’evi Farkash. He studied at Ben Yakir and became, among other things, commander of the elite 8200 Intelligence Unit and commander of the Intelligence Branch of the IDF. Every year, some 800 youngsters study at the four youth villages. The majority of them finish with a

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Photo: Jean Lavie, 2017

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They paved roads, built houses, constructed new neighborhoods with their bare hands, leveled dunes and moved rocks and were the founders of this country. None of this could have taken place without the significant support of Zionist groups like Keren Hayesod that identified the need to build the country from scratch, and contributed vast amounts for this purpose. The work started in the 1920s with the establishment of Solel Boneh, a cooperative of Hebrew workers that engaged in a wide range of public works and created infrastructures throughout the land. Quarries were purchased and funds were raised to pave roads. At the same time, Keren Hayesod supported the construction of new neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and other cities throughout the Land of Israel. Despite the difficulties and the vast efforts needed, they never gave in to despair. Leveling the stubborn sand dunes on which the town of Holon was eventually built in 1940, for example, took three whole years. It took a similar period of time to level the land north of Tel Aviv on which Sde Dov, the airfield named for Dov Hoz, was later built. But Keren Hayesod, as usual, overcame all the obstacles and led the development of the Land of Israel.

Photo: Crushing stone into gravel at a building site, 1924

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Every year, over 1,000 “lone soldiers” in Israel complete their military service. These idealistic young men and women from around the world leave their families and the comforts of home in order to join the Israel Defense Forces and serve the State of Israel. But together with a sense of mission, they often experience a feeling of loneliness and isolation.

Through the Wings program, Keren Hayesod and the Jewish Agency for Israel provide vitally important assistance to lone soldiers: financial support when needed, emergency intervention during wartime and personal guidance. Toward the end of their service, Wings helps prepare them for civilian life, offering counseling and guidance, financial grants and a mentoring program that helps them make the transition into civilian life.

For Gamliel Atalan, who immigrated from France and served in the IDF, the Wings program provided a springboard to integrate into Israeli society. With the help of the program, he was able to study cooking and meet inspiring chefs like Meir Adoni. During the ten years of its existence, Wings has helped absorb more than 5,000 new olim. The program accompanies the lone soldiers from their enlistment in the IDF until two years after their discharge.

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Photo: Gamliel Atalan, 2019

Shlomo Hillel was born in 1923, almost at the same time as Keren Hayesod was founded. He grew up in Iraq and his life story interfaces with that of Keren Hayesod in many ways, not just chronologically.

In 1934, Shlomo Hillel came to the Land of Israel with his family. He became a central player in organized aliyah efforts, wielding enormous influence. Through his work with the Mossad LeAliyah Bet, he was responsible for clandestine immigration operations from Iran, North Africa and Egypt. He was one of the leaders of Operation Ezra and Nehemiah, which rescued 120,000 Jews from Iraq. Many details of his activities are still classified. Hillel, one of the founders of Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael, was a diplomat and politician and was also the Speaker of the Knesset, Minister of Police, and Minister of Internal Affairs.

In 1989 he was appointed world chairman of Keren Hayesod. During his nine-year tenure, large aliyah operations from the Soviet Union (Exodus) and from Ethiopia (Operation Solomon) were carried out. “We have many problems”, he said in an interview in 2011, “but they do not cause the glorious past or the hope for the future to be forgotten. Young people take the State of Israel for granted. They need to be reminded that we did not come to America or France. We came to a country with difficulties and malaria, and made it flourish. We did great things together and this must be preserved”. In 1998, Hillel was awarded the Israel Prize for his special contribution to society and the state, as a person who devoted his life to Israel and the Jewish people. In his message in honor of the Keren Hayesod centennial, Shlomo Hillel said: “Mazal tov to Keren Hayesod. Don’t rest on your laurels. Work more than ever. It’s important to us, the State of Israel, for the continued existence of the Jewish people and for the relationship between Jewish communities around the world and the State of Israel”.

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Photo: Shlomo Hillel (1923-2021)

In some 60 communities, in 40 countries, on five continents, in nine languages, at any given moment, somewhere around the globe, something is happening in the Keren Hayesod world. From its first day, Keren Hayesod has been a global organization, perhaps one of the first global organizations in the world. Today it is a broad network, more active and effective than ever before. The local campaigns serve as the infrastructure of this network. In every community, large or small, there is an organization that works for the people of Israel through Keren Hayesod. The campaigns are at the heart of the action, the link between donors, leaders and activists, emissaries and staff, communities and Israel. This international support network, with Keren Hayesod and Israel at its center, makes it possible to achieve two objectives. First, each and every Jew and Friend of Israel, anywhere in the world, can be a part of our vital activities. At the same time, anyone who needs assistance, whether in Israel or elsewhere, can receive help. What characterizes a family? Mutual support and assistance. Campaigns, activists, leadership, donors, emissaries, professionals, beneficiaries – they are all part of the global Keren Hayesod family.

Keren Hayesod donors support an enormous variety of activities for disadvantaged groups and life-saving and life[1]changing organizations that help the neediest children and adults in Israel.

Take Aleh, for example. In 1982, a group of parents proved that with intensive, individualized treatment, even children with the most severe disabilities could realize their potential. This is how the Aleh Association was founded; today it cares for 650 babies, children and teenagers with very severe disabilities, and gives them the best and most comprehensive care. Aleh operates four residential facilities in Israel – in Jerusalem, Gedera, Bnei Brak and the Negev – that with the help of a professional and dedicated staff and hundreds of volunteers, provide a warm and loving home.

The broad therapeutic program has resulted in many success stories of children who, against all the odds and defying all medical prognoses, have learned to stand, walk and communicate with their surroundings.

Aleh’s activities are based on the firm belief that every individual deserves the best quality of life, based on unconditional love. Maj. Gen. (Res.) Doron Almog was one of the founders of the rehabilitation village in the South, Aleh Negev – Nahalat Eran – where his son Eran lived until his death. When talking about Aleh’s activities, Almog always said: “The strength of the human chain is measured by its weakest links”. This statement is emblematic of the broad range of activities supported by Keren Hayesod donors. The assistance given to dozens of charitable organizations in Israel that help disadvantaged populations brings positive change into the lives of each of the beneficiaries and strengthens Israeli society as a whole.

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Photo: Activities at Aleh, 2015

The cornerstone of Keren Hayesod, and the secret of its success over the years, is the partnership between Israel and world Jewry, which is maintained through Keren Hayesod’s leadership.

The leadership structure consists of an Israeli world chairman and a chairman of the World Board of Trustees who represents the global campaigns, together with partnership in all the statutory bodies.

In its early years, from 1920 until the birth of the State of Israel in 1948, the organization was led by its professionals, the directors: Berthold Feiwel in London (1920-1926), and then, after the opening of KH’s world center in Jerusalem, the co-directors Arthur Hantke (1926-1955) and Leib Yaffe (1926-1948), who was murdered in the attack on the National Institutions building, and Kurt Blumenfeld (1936-1951). The office of the chairman was instituted in 1951, with Eliyahu Dobkin, Arthur Hantke and Zvi Herman serving as co-chairmen (1951-1956). Dobkin continued working alone between 1956 and 1961, when Rabbi Dr. Israel Goldstein took office, a position he held until 1971. He was succeeded by Ezra Shapiro (1971-1977), who was followed by both Phil Granovsky and Faye Schenk as co-chairs (1977-1978). Wishing to give greater expression to the partnership with the global campaigns and the important role played by volunteer leadership, their successors, world chairman Dr. Avraham Avi-hai (1978-1988) and Keren Hayesod chair Phil Granovsky of Canada, created the KH World Board of Trustees. Granovsky, who was also the first chairman of the World Board of Trustees (1979-1983), was followed by Mendel Kaplan of South Africa (1983-1987), who became honorary president in 1995. Since then Keren Hayesod was co-headed by Shlomo Hillel as world chairman (1988-1998), together with Phil Granovsky (a second time), Julia Koschitzky of Canada, who has held the title of honorary president since 2010, and Daniel Liwerant of Mexico, as chairs of the KH World Board of Trustees. World chairman Amb. Avi Pazner (1998-2010) partnered with Harvey Wolfe of Canada and Mark Leibler AC of Australia. Eliezer (Moodi) Sandberg (2010-2018) worked with Yohanna Arbib-Perugia of Italy and David Koschitzky of Canada. Since 2019, Keren Hayesod has been headed by Shmuel (Sam) Grundwerg as world chairman and Steven Lowy AM of Australia as chairman of the World Board of Trustees.
As in the past, Keren Hayesod is blessed with first-class leaders and partners. They include the members of the Board of Trustees, the Board of Directors, the World Executive and of the various committees, as well as the recipients of its various awards, who all continue to show inspiring leadership and dedication to the people of Israel.

Yaacov Scheibitz waited 70 years for the moment when he could celebrate his bar mitzvah. In 1941, the Nazis arrived at his family’s home in the Ukraine, and his mother took him and his 5-year-old brother and fled eastward. But their flight was delayed after his mother injured her leg. Yaacov went in search of food, but when he returned, he discovered that his mother and little brother had been killed by a Nazi bomb. Yaacov was forced to survive the war on his own and at the age of 17, enlisted in the Red Army to fight the Germans. In 1992, he made aliyah, penniless. Thanks to Keren Hayesod, he found a home at an Amigour sheltered facility for the elderly. Several years later, the good people at Amigour learned that because of the war, Yaacov had never celebrated his bar mitzvah. They went into action and decided to help him fulfil his dream: they held a moving ceremony at the Western Wall for Yaakov and 30 other residents who never celebrated their bar mtzvahs; the participation of a group of soldiers made the occasion even more festive. With the support of Keren Hayesod donors, the Amigour Company provides sheltered housing, a supportive social framework and a warm home for 7,500 impoverished elderly people, most of them immigrants and Holocaust survivors. Thanks to Keren Hayesod and the State of Israel, Amigour is currently building another 2,650 apartments at 16 sites around the country for thousands of additional seniors. “I waited 70 years for this moment”, Yaakov said after his bar mitzvah celebration. “I am doing this not only to honor my mother, but also to honor the six million who were murdered by the Nazis”.

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Photo: Yaacov Scheibitz at his bar mitzvah celebration at the Western Wall, Jerusalem, 2013

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In 1924, Keren Hayesod produced its first documentary film[1]Land of Promise (Banim Bonim in Hebrew), presenting the courageous and difficult work of the young pioneers. The film shows dozens of Zionist olim, under the burning sun, fulfilling their dream of making the desert bloom and settling the Land of Israel. Jacob Ben-Dov’s amazing photographs show the pioneers creating settlements, paving roads, setting up water and electricity infrastructures, renovating neighborhoods and establishing Hadassah Hospital. It was Keren Hayesod’s crucial contribution that made it possible to carry out this broad range of activities. With their bare hands and through communal work, the pioneers laid the foundations of the state-on-the-way. These rare photographs preserve not only the hard work of the pioneer generation, but also their joy, their exuberant and unique lifestyle, business activities and family. The photos offer us a unique glimpse into the pioneering activities of the 1920s. Keren Hayesod, which early on recognized the importance of filming, preserving memories and public relations, has in its possession exceptional documentation of the Yishuv and the State of Israel, from its early days until the present.

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Photo: From the silent movie “Land of Promise,” produced by Keren Hayesod, 1924