Condition is good, some stains of moisture on the paper

Keren Hayesod was established at the World Zionist Congress in London on July 7–24, 1920 to provide the Zionist movement with resources needed to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. 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.

Keren Hayesod established fundraising organizations around the world. Early leaders included Chaim Weizmann, Albert Einstein and Ze’ev Jabotinsky.

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. In 1926, Keren Hayesod relocated its headquarters from London to Jerusalem. With the establishment of the Jewish Agency in 1929, Keren Hayesod became its fundraising arm while continuing its own wide-ranging activities.

The effects of the worldwide economic depression of 1929 hit Keren Hayesod hard, but after Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, Keren Hayesod helped to develop the Haifa Bay suburbs to provide housing for German Jews fleeing the Nazis. Towards this end, the Rassco construction company was established in 1934. In 1936, Keren Hayesod supported the establishment of what would become the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra to provide employment for refugee musicians.

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. During and after World War II, it launched emergency campaigns, sometimes in partnership with other organizations. 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.

Many Keren Hayesod leaders were murdered in the Holocaust. 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]

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