Keren Hayesod

It came in response to the Balfour Declaration of 1917, which stated that “his Majesty's government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” - turning the ages-old dream of the return to Zion into a politically feasible goal.

During the 1920s, Keren Hayesod began to lay the groundwork for a Jewish National Home and helped raise funds to establish the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Bank Hapoalim and various physical projects.

With the help of donations from all over the Jewish world, Keren Hayesod established over 900 urban and rural settlements in Israel, provided housing and jobs for new immigrants.

Funds were used to help the Allied war effort and when the concentration camps were liberated to smuggle survivors into Palestine in defiance of British immigration restrictions.

In March 1948, a car bomb was detonated in the courtyard of the building, killing twelve people, including the director of Keren Hayesod, Leib Yaffe.

[1] The first full decade that followed the birth of the State of Israel was marked by huge waves of immigration, primarily from North Africa, Yemen, Kurdistan and Iraq.

Renewed resistance to Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, marked by the Second Intifada (2000-2004), had a devastating impact on the Israeli economy, resulting in major social distress.

Thus, for example, Keren Hayesod, in partnership with the Jewish Agency, Cisco Systems Inc. and the Appleseeds Academy, initiated the Net@ project, which provides hi-tech training to youth in the suburbs.

Following the kidnapping and murder of three teenage boys by Hamas in early June, rocket fire from Gaza intensified into round-the-clock attacks with only 15 seconds to run for safety.