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Rare illustrated Judeo-German pamphlet describing the activities of the Jewish National Fund in Eretz Israel. Bound in off-orange wrappers the title page has an ornamental frame displaying the symbols of the twelve tribes of Israel. The text, in seven chapters, begins the first chapter dealing with the greening (planting trees) of the land with the verse “And they shall build the old ruins, they shall raise up the former desolations” (Isaiah 61:4). There are ten illustrations, the first a photograph of Herzel followed by pastoral and agricultural photographs of farming activities throughout the land, such as of Gan Shemu’el and of workers at the Kinneret near Tiberius. On the back cover are the prices for different locations of the pamphlet, 3 cents, 6 kop. 1 ½ pence, and 15 heller.
Jewish National Fund, (Keren Kayemeth Leisrael) was the land purchase and development fund of the Zionist Organization. It was founded on December 29, 1901 at the Fifth Zionist Congress at Basle, which resolved: "The JNF shall be the eternal possession of the Jewish people. Its funds shall not be used except for the purchase of lands in Palestine and Syria." The Hebrew name comes from the talmudic dictum about good deeds "the fruits of which a man enjoys in this world, while the capital abides (ha-keren kayyemet) for him in the world to come" (Pe'ah 1:1). A land fund was first suggested by Judah Alkalai in 1847. It was proposed by Hermann Schapira at the Katowice Conference in 1884 and again at the First Zionist Congress in 1897. Schapira based his idea of public ownership of land on the biblical injunction "The land shall not be sold forever for the land is Mine," and on the institution of the Jubilee Year, which stipulates that all holdings which have changed hands revert to their original owners in the 50th year (Lev. 25:10, 23–24).,p>
JNF leasehold contracts run for 49 years and can be prolonged by the lessee or his heirs as long as they serve the purpose specified; holdings may neither be united with other domains nor divided among several heirs; the lessee needs the lessor's consent if he wishes to use his holding for a purpose other than that stipulated in the contract; on rural tracts, the lessee must cultivate his own soil; ground rents are to be kept as low as possible, whether the land serves farming, industry, housing, or other purposes.
Between 1902 and 1907, the JNF had its administration in Vienna, where Johann Kremenezki created a worldwide organization for fund raising by means of JNF stamps, the Blue Box, a small tin collection box, and the Golden Book for honoring a person by donating a large contribution in his name which is inscribed in the book, which soon became popular Zionist symbols. In 1907 the head office was transferred to Cologne, with Max Bodenheimer as chairman of the board of directors, and the JNF was incorporated in London as an "association limited by guarantee." The first tract of land acquired was that of Kefar Ḥittim in Lower Galilee (1904), followed in 1908 by Ben Shemen and Ḥuldah in Judea, and Kinneret-Deganyah near Lake Kinneret. The JNF made its first experiments in tree planting in 1908 with the Herzl Forest, financed by its Olive Tree Fund. It aided urban development by long-term loans to the founders of Tel Aviv and by acquiring the building of the Bezalel Art School in Jerusalem, land for the Herzlia High School in Tel Aviv, and the Technion in Haifa. It also financed the activities of the Palestine Office of the Zionist Organization. In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, the head office was transferred to The Hague in neutral Holland under Nehemia de Lieme . In July 1920, the London Conference of the Zionist Organization, which established an additional fund, the Keren Hayesod , declared the JNF to be "the instrument of the urban and rural land policy of the Jewish people," devoted exclusively to land acquisition and improvement. |
