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