Although Israel has been a sovereign state for over 50 years, it is still a society in the making. In every country where there is a Jewish community, there is an organisation affiliated with Keren Hayesod (except in the USA, where a separate organisation, the UJA exists).
We are Jews from around the world – from Latin America, Europe, North America, Australia, South Africa – working together in a common cause, and demonstrating that when it comes to the needs of the Jewish people, distances are irrelevant. Through fundraising campaigns Diaspora Jews can show their support for Israel, Jewish continuity, community "togetherness" and Jewish education in a concrete way.
Our supporters are ensuring that every Jew who wants to live in Israel can make the move. By bringing our young people, in both the East and West , back to their Jewish roots, we are reinforcing our Jewish Identity.
Hand in hand with the Jewish Agency, Keren Hayesod has accompanied and supported the State of Israel for over 50 years, paved with miracles: from the establishment of the State, through its survival against all odds in the face of numerous onslaughts by its hostile neighbours, to its entry into the era of peace.
We are involved in:
Rescue Operations: When Jews have been caught in war zones – in Ethiopia, Bosnia, Sarajevo, Chechnya, Dagestan and others – we have evacuated entire communities. Jews in countries of distress can always find shelter in the Jewish homeland.
Financial Assistance: Israel offers hope to Jewish Communities in distress around the world.
Spiritual Assistance and Jewish Identity: Some of our programmes include Hebrew language ulpanim and summer camps to encourage Jewish identification, instill Jewish pride, supply basic Jewish knowledge and to prepare young people for life in the Jewish state. We have brought 175,000 young Jews from abroad to participate in "Israel Experience" programmes.
Education: Keren Hayesod trains teachers internationally and prepares teaching materials in several languages. Keren Hayesod has helped advance Jewish education for thousands of children around the world. We have also cared for and educated 300,000 youngsters through Youth Aliyah.
Aliyah and Development: Since the establishment of the State of Israel, Keren Hayesod has brought 3–million Jews to Israel, including 750,000 from the former Soviet Union in the last decade and facilitated their absorption. We have established more than 800 rural settlements in Israel and transformed 90 disadvantaged Israeli neighbourhoods through Project Renewal. Keren Hayesod also provides encouragement to olim by helping to create a better quality of life.
Individual donors have the opportunity to designate funds for specific purposes, and to name the project, established through their generosity. This serves to deepen the donors' sense of identification and involvement with Israel, and to make Israelis more aware of the caring and commitment that Diaspora Jews feel towards Israel.
Millions of Israelis have already benefited through Keren Hayesod sponsored projects, but much work still remains to be done. Some Keren Hayesod projects a donor can undertake include::
- Providing mothers with a safe, loving environment for their infants while they go to work
- Giving senior citizens a place to find comfort and camaraderie
- Education programmes including providing opportunities for youngsters to develop hidden talents and developing a new field of innovation in education
- Welfare programmes including shelters for battered women and drug rehabilitation centres
- Health/hospital projects such as providing new hope through treatment for people suffering from cancer and other diseases
- Community and youth projects such as giving newcomers a feeling of belonging and becoming an active performer in the development of a better society in Israel
- Sports programmes
- Directed giving to specific areas of need
The "living bridge" linking overseas communities with partner regions in Israel's peripheries.
South Africa, together with the Jewish community of Washington D.C. is twinned in the Partnership 2000 programme with the thriving town of Beit-Shemesh and the surrounding rural area of Adulam. Beit-Shemesh / Adulam is located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. More>>
