From Galicia Gordonia spread to the rest of Poland, Rumania, and the United States and, by World War II, had close to 40,000 members. At all its conferences, it stressed its identification with the Erez Israel labor movement and its fundamental principle -personal fulfillment through aliyah and settlement within the framework of collective living and labor. The first Gordonia groups began to settle in Erez Israel shortly after the riots of 1929, first in Haderah and later in other places. These groups laid the foundation for kevuzot of Gordonia in the rebuilt Huldah, which became the movement's center in Erez Israel and contains the central archive of Gordonia, and in Kefar ha-Horesh, Massadah, Ma'aleh ha-Hamishah, Nir Am, Hanitah, etc. These groups, which first merged into Iggud Gordonia, joined Hever ha-Kevuzot in 1933 and also provided new members for established kevuzot (Deganyah Alef and Bet, Geva, Ginnegar, etc.).

Later followed the merger of Gordonia with Maccabi ha-Za'ir, which developed as a Jewish scouting movement in Germany and Czechoslovakia and whose members began to settle in Erez Israel in 1932–33. Maccabi ha-Za'ir set up its first settlements (Kefar ha-Maccabi, Ma'yan Zevi) in the framework of Hever ha-Kevuzot in 1941, integrated with Gordonia, and thereafter the two movements served as a single framework for pioneering Jewish youth from Eastern and Western Europe. In 1937 a Gordonia movement came into being among Jewish youth in Palestine, and in 1945 it united with part of Mahanot ha-Olim and founded Ha-Tenu'ah ha-Me'uhedet (full name, Ha-Tenu'ah ha-Kelalit shel ha-No'ar ha-Lomed). After the Holocaust, attempts were also made abroad to unite pioneering youth movements with aims similar to those of Gordonia, and finally, when the Ihud ha-Kevuzot ve-ha-Kibbutzim was created (in 1951), and after a series of mergers with Gordonia, Ihud Habonim was founded.

Gordonia played a heroic role in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. In Warsaw, under the leadership of Israel Zeltzer and Eliezer Geller, a secret center of the movement was established on 23 Nalewki Street, which organized a considerable network of underground educational activities among its members of all age groups. The center, mainly through Geller's visits in the ghettos of Czestochowa, Opoczno, Bedin, Sosnowiec, Opatow, and other towns, contributed greatly to the resistance movement and also to the preparations for active revolts, particularly in Warsaw in 1943. Gordonia's Polish-language underground paper in Warsaw SGowo Mlodych was published in Hebrew translation in 1966 by the archives of Gordonia-Maccabi ha-Za'ir. From its foundation, the movement published newspapers and literature in a number of languages. Pinhas Lavon (Lubianiker) was the head of the movement from its foundation throughout its existence.

Pinhas Lavon (Lubianiker) (1904–1976)was an Israeli labor leader and a founder of the Gordonia movement. Born in Kopychintsy, East Galicia, Lavon completed his law studies at Lvov University. At first he was active in Ha-Shomer ha-Za'ir, but in the 1920s became one of the main organizers of Gordonia in Galicia and Poland. In 1929 he settled in Palestine along with the first Gordonia group, which established itself in Huldah, renewing the settlement which was destroyed in the 1929 disturbances. Lavon gave the Gordonia movement a clearly defined ideological basis and molded its educational and political program. He became active in the labor movement and in the Histadrut while in Huldah. He played a leading role in transforming the Union of Kevuzot (Hever ha-Kevuzot) into a well-organized federation and was active in public life (see Kibbutz Movement). He initiated the merger of the Hever ha-Kevuzot with Gordonia, became its acknowledged spokesman, and advocated the unification of the entire kibbutz movement. In 1938–39 Lavon was a secretary of Mapai, together with Yizhak Ben-Aharon. In 1942 he was elected to the Histadrut Executive and in 1949 he became its general secretary. He was instrumental in bringing the Teachers' Union into the Histadrut and the religious workers' movements into its trade union framework. He also initiated Histadrut housing projects for workers.

Lavon was a member of the Knesset from 1949 to 1961. From 1950 to 1952 he served as minister of agriculture under David Ben-Gurion. In 1952 he became minister without portfolio, and in 1953–54, during Ben-Gurion's retirement, he was minister of defense. While he held this last position, the air force acquired jet planes and the paratroopers became a key factor in defense operations; also, the defense forces began to rely on purchasing arms from France. In 1955 he resigned from his post after an intelligence mishap in Egypt (see below, the "Lavon Affair"). He was reelected general secretary of the Hista drut and organized its large enterprises, e.g., separating the building company Solel Boneh from the Koor company, etc. However, he was removed from this post in 1961 in connection with the affair. His followers organized in a group called Min ha-Yesod, which existed for several years. To its meeting at Huldah, in May, 1964, Prime Minister Eshkol sent a letter in which he declared that the decision of 1961 "has now become senseless." This letter aroused again a public tempest initiated by Ben-Gurion's opposition to any attempt to rehabilitate Lavon. Lavon then retired from public life. He was a brilliant ideologue and polemicist of the labor movement in Israel. He published numerous articles which have been collected in Yesodot (1941), Arakhim u-Temurot (1959), Ba-Vikku'ah ha-Medini (1945), Bi-Netivei Iyyun u-Ma'avak (1968).