New Plan for Securing Palestine Capital Through Life Insurance Insurance

A new plan to secure capital for the development of Palestine as the Jewish National Home, was developed by the Judea Industrial Corporation, the Parent of the Judea Life Insurance Company of New York. Home Office, 55 East 23rd Street, New York and the Judea Insurane Company, Limited, of Palestine, Home Office, Jerusalem.

According to the plan made public yesterday, the Judea Life Insurance Company will seek individual insurance policies with Palestine institutions as the beneficiaries.

It is to form what is to be known as a Ten Million Dollar Club, composed of individuals who have taken out life insurance policies or designated an assured in their place, with the Jewish National Fund as the beneficiary. The plan is based on the benef of the sponsors that in view of the fact that the Jewish National Fund, the agency which purchases Palestine land as the inalienable property of the Jewish people, needs, according to authoritative statements, this amount for the redeeming of a considerable stretch of land, a ready response for membership in this club will be forthcoming. The action is concentrated on the Jewish National Fund because of its non-partisan character and because of its work which is considered expedient by all friends of Palestine, Zionists and non-Zionists alike.

The Eretz Israel Endowment Fund, Inc., recently organized, will work for the benefit of five agencies which will, among themselves, own the profit-bearing shares of the Fund.

The five agencies designated to hold the profit-bearing shares of the Fund are the Jewish National Fund, Central Office in Jerusalem; the Hebrew University, Jerusalem; the World Zionist Organization or the Jewish Agency; the Vaad Haleumi, the National Council of Palestine Jews, and the Judea Insurance Company, Limited, of Palestine.

Under the Eretz Israel Endowment Fund plan, every person who purchases a Judea Life policy at meetings conducted by the Fund, will receive, with out extra cost, an additional amount of insurance equal to five percent of the face value of his policy. The insured will, by reason of this policy, be entitled to membership in the Eretz Israel Endowment Fund without extra charge and his name will be recorded in the Golden Book of the Fund. Thus, for every million dollars of insurance written by the Eretz Israel Endowment Fund, Inc. there will be set up a fund of $50,000 insurance for the benefit of Palestine.

A spokesman for the company, describing the proposed Ten Million Dollar Club for the benefit of the Jewish National Fund, said yesterday : “It is generally conceded by Zionists and non-Zionists, irrespective of their opinions about the practicatity of the various theories advanced for the past twenty-five years or more regarding the future of the Jews in Palestine, that the one outstanding movement having the sympathetic support of all Jewry everywhere, is that of the Jewish National Fund.

“The record of this Fund is well known to every student of current Jewish history. The Jewish National Fund is the property of the Jewish people as such, and no group lays any exclusive or leading proprietary claim to it.

“The Jewish National Fund owns at the present time, approximately 250,000 dunam (about 100,000 acres) of land in Palestine, the greater part of which is already settled by Jewish people who emigrated from the Diaspora. The territory covered by these settlements, on a leasehold issued to them by the Jewish National Fund, is the most redeeming feature of the new Palestine.

“When this Fund will be well enough understood by the better elements of the Jewish people in the United States, there is no doubt in the mind of every student of events pertaining to Palestine, that the redemption of the soil in Palestine may become a reality within our own age.

“In view of the fact that the present system of collections for the Jewish National Fund may defer the goal beyond the reach of the present generation, that some method more expedient and practical be found that will speed the realization of that great hope of all friends of Palestine. Such a method is contained in the proposal to utilize the medium of life insurance, with a concrete program leading to the mobilization of substantial amounts into a solid block, which shall be sufficient ultimately to swing the purchase by the Jewish National Fund of a tract of land in Palestine large enough to give the Jewish Agency of the near future a commanding position in the country.

“As it may take many years for the Jewish National Fund to acquire an additional $5,000,000 in cash, under its present system of money raising, we might as well count on the ultimate cost of that same stretch of land to be $10,000,000 To create a fund of $10,000,000 regardless of the particular land for which it may be used when finally attained, the formation of a Life Insurance Club, to be known as the Ten Million Dollar Club, composed of distinguished personalities in American Jewry, is now proposed.”