Israel’s united labor organization, the Histadrut (HaHistadrut HaKlalit shel HaOvdim B’Eretz Yisrael, the General Federation of Laborers in the Land of Israel) was founded in Palestine on this date in 1920 through the efforts of Berel Katznelson. By the following year, David Ben-Gurion was elected as Secretary, and by 1927 the Histadrut had 25,000 members, or three of every four Jewish workers in Palestine. By 1983, membership (including families) reached 1.6 million, comprising 85 percent of Israel’s working class, including 170,000 Arabs (who were admitted starting in 1959). The organization was the embodiment of Israeli-style socialism, taking responsibility for the settlement of immigrants, unifying trade unions, fostering programs in education, housing construction, health, banking, cooperative ventures, welfare, and culture, as well as sponsoring the Labor party in the Knesset. Bat-Sheva Margalit Stern observes (Jewish Women’s Archive), however, that “only a minority of women joined the Histadrut as the result of an ideological decision” and that women “were subject to discrimination in every form of activity, from labor to management and politics,” in both the Histadrut and the trade unions it represented. In 1976, the women’s division of the Histadrut became Na’amat, the Movement of Working Women and Volunteers, which currently has 300,000 members.
“It is the aim of the General Federation of all the workers and laborers of Palestine who live by the sweat of their brows without exploiting the toil of others, to promote land settlement, to involve itself in all economic and cultural issues affecting labor in Palestine, and to build a Jewish workers’ society there.” —Founding resolution of the Histadrut.
