Up until the end of the 19th century, Eretz Israel had no organized gaming industry. Parents had to create their children's games. Books and newspapers occasionally carried a do-it-yourself section. In the early 1920's, manufacturers brought the first game and toys factories to the land of Israel. They produced ready-made games.

The industry started to flourish in the 1930's with the rise of experts, who immigrated from Poland, Germany, and Russia. Game creators, artists, carpenters, painters, teachers, and educators contributed to the industry. The games were based on ideas and concepts related to Judaism, Zionism and the Land of Israel. They presented pictures and paintings of sites of Eretz Israel, and national myths, such as "historical land", "fatherland" and "cradle of the nation".

The largest, most important gaming agent was the JNF. It spread the ideas of Zionism and settlement of the land, by various means to a wide audience in Eretz Israel and the Diaspora. Their game productions involved various entities; printing houses, graphic artists etc. Alternatively, entrepreneurs would offer their inventions and productions to the JNF. Those games were subsequently adapted, translated, and distributed by the JNF.

Despite their persistence, game publishing was a short-lived campaign, unlike the more traditional promotions, such as stamps or "blue box".

With the establishment of the State of Israel, the toy and game industry grew and developed independently and the JNF's involvement became less significant.

See more here http://www.zionistarchives.org.il/en/AttheCZA/Pages/Games.aspx

About the Central Zionist Archive

The CZA is the historical archives of the Zionist Movement and holds files and documents that record the history of the Zionist movement around the world, immigration to Palestine over the years, settlement endeavors and the forming of the Jewish State. All in all, the Archives holds over 90 million documents, photographs, posters, maps, newspapers, books, museum artifacts and audio items that shed light on the motives, the hardships and the achievements of the Zionist movement. The Archives website is regularly updated and contains information on the archives and their collections, which allows the viewer to search our records remotely.

Photo used with permission of the CZA