This article from the November 18, 1935 edition of the Palestine Post reports the celebration to mark the fifteenth anniversary of the Keren Hayesod in Warsaw, Poland. The event was held in the large hall of the Warsaw Philharmonic and was attended by over 2000 people. It was opened by Professor Moshe Schorr, the head of Keren Hayesod in Poland, followed by a review of Keren Hayesod’s accomplishments by its founder and general-director, Dr. Leib Yaffe. The program included a performance by the Warsaw Philharmonic Quartette who, according to the article, “played many Palestinian tunes.” The article also announces that Dr. Yaffe would be broadcasting a speech in Hebrew from Warsaw.
Keren Hayesod, also known as the United Israel Appeal, was founded in 1920 for the purpose of raising funds for the building of the State of Israel.
Would You Like to Know More?
Keren Hayesod – Keren Hayesod, also known as the United Israel Appeal (UIA), was founded in 1920 at the World Zionist Conference for the purpose of raising funds to build the State of Israel. Early leaders included Chaim Weizmann, Albert Einstein, and Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Keren Hayesod is the official fundraising organisation for Israel in countries outside of Israel, except for the United States. Its offices were originally situated in London but moved to Jerusalem in 1926. In the years before the creation of the state, Keren Hayesod funded the activities of the Yishuv (the pre-state Jewish community of Palestine), which included developing water resources, settling new immigrants, and defending the land and its people. Since the creation of the state, Keren Hayesod’s emphasis has been on rescuing persecuted Jews around the world and absorbing new immigrants in Israel. Today, the organisation’s main goals are to help new immigrants to Israel, to support peripheral areas in Israel, and to strengthen the ties between Israel and the Diaspora, including supporting projects such as Taglit (Birthright) and Masa.
Leib Yaffe – Leib Yaffe (1876–1948) was born in Russia and attended the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1897. He was a popular Zionist writer and orator. In 1920, Yaffe immigrated to Israel and became the editor of the newspaper Ha’aretz. He was appointed director of the Keren Hayesod and served in that position until he was killed in a terrorist attack in the courtyard of the Keren Hayesod building in Jerusalem on March 11, 1948.
Moshe Schorr – Moshe Schorr (1874–1941) was the rabbi of the central synagogue of Poland prior to the Holocaust. Schorr was also one of the leading experts on the Jewish history of Poland and a scholar of ancient Middle Eastern languages. He was appointed to the Polish Senate and played an active role in the social and religious life of the Jewish community in Poland, representing Polish Jews in domestic and international forums. Schorr took part in the Seventh Zionist Congress and was one of the key speakers at the Evian Conference that convened in 1938 to discuss the fate of the Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria. At the beginning of World War II, Schorr fled Poland for the Soviet Union, where he was arrested and finally died in a Soviet work camp in Uzbekistan.
