 In September 1940, the HaNoar Ha'Ivri conference reached a unanimous decision to establish an immersive Hebrew-speaking camp, an idea initiated by Shlomo Shulsinger, who came to the United States from Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s.The camp's name, from the Hebrew word meaning "foundation", was inspired by a line from the poem "Birkat Am" by Hayim Nahman Bialik.In its first season in 1941, Massad operated as a day camp at Far Rockaway, Queens with Shulsinger as camp director.