How Israel Once Solved a Housing Crisis
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Crossposted from Haaretz
On February 27, 1936, the cornerstone was laid for Kiryat Avoda, a new workers’ neighborhood built on the sands south of Tel Aviv. It spread over 3,000 dunams and became an important link in establishing Holon at the start of the 1940s. Kiryat Avoda was supposed to solve the housing shortage for municipal workers and to create a socialist utopia in the spirit of Histadrut Ha’ovdim (the Workers’ Federation).
Accordingly, educational and cultural institutions were built: a conservatory, a public library and a school, alongside small shops and a medical clinic. In the heart of the neighborhood a green strip one and a half kilometers long (today’s Herzl Park) was allocated for relaxation and leisure at the end of a day’s work.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
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