Bachad

Bachad Brit Halutzim Datiim (Religious Pioneers Federation) was a British-based Jewish youth organisation founded in 1928. It was one of the organisations that worked with the Central British Fund to care for the Boys in the UK and on Kibbutz Lavi in Israel.

The Boys were teenage and child-Holocaust survivors, who were brought to the UK after the war for rest and rehabilitation.

Bachad was part of a wider movement of religious Zionist youth groups in Europe focusing on preparing young Orthodox Jews for life on kibbutzim (agricultural communities) in Mandatory Palestine.

One of its leaders, Arieh Handler (1915-2011), played a major role in the Kindertransport. In the 1930s, Handler came to Britain and was one of the founders of the British Branch of the religious Zionist movement, Bnei Akiva, in 1942. He was also the President of the religious Zionist organisation Mizrachi.

After the war, Bachad took care of young survivors from the concentration camps in the Displaced Persons’ camps in Germany as well as in the UK. The organisation helped care for the Boys in numerous hostels, including Liverpool and Singleton Road in Manchester. Bachad organised hachscharot, vocational and agricultural training undertaken in view of emigrating to Palestine. The largest hachscharah centre was at Gwrych Castle in Wales.

During and after the war, Bachad worked closely with the Jewish Refugees Committee and other organisations to care for survivors of the Holocaust, including some of the Boys. Many Bachad members later made aliyah to Israel, where they joined or established religious kibbutzim.