One For the Other (Post-Scripted Version)

From the Bernard Museum of Judaica - Justify Your Existence exhibit catalog: One Brother to Another Moshe Vorobeichic Palestine, 1935 The Histadrut’s Unemployment Fund was established to relieve chronic unemployment in 1930s Palestine, but the fund did more than offer monetary support to unemployed workers. By contracting for road construction, opening factories, forming cooperatives, and giving loans to kibbutzim to purchase farm equipment, the Histadrut eventually became the country’s largest employer. In its original Hebrew, the caption beneath this poignant image poetically evokes a centuries-old Talmudic dictum: Kol Yisrael Areivim Zeh la-Zeh (“All of Israel are responsible one for the other”) The adapted version given here is by David Ben Gurion, first Secretary General of the Histadrut, who would later become the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel. Translation from Hebrew: General Federation of Jewish Workers in the Land of Israel (Histradrut) Unemployment Fund Banner Day for the Unemployment Fund is Sunday, December 8, 1935 “We are responsible for each other, one brother to another, and today is answerable to tomorrow.” —D. Ben Gurion