“The work of the Jewish National Fund today is the supreme Zionist halutzic (pioneering) effort of the Jewish people,” Rabbi Joseph Sternstein, the newly elected president of the JNF of America said. He noted that afforestation and land reclamation are essentially “instruments for the up-building of the Jewish people through the up-building of the State of Israel.”
Sternstein, in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, said that the JNF of America has been devoting efforts and resources towards two major goals: raising funds for the work of the JNF in Israel and undertaking an extensive educational program in the United States and Canada.
With a yearly budget of about $18 million, the JNF of America continues to play an active role in the traditional projects of the JNF, or Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael as it is known in Hebrew, of planting trees and reclaiming land in Israel.
“The work of reclaiming the land continues in areas which are far removed from the cities, such as in the Negev, the Arava or Lower Galilee, side by side with projects near the major cities or in the cities themselves,” Sternstein said. He pointed out that the JNF is planning to build a new recreational park near the Hatikva quarter south of Tel Aviv, complete with a lake, forest and landscaped grounds. “The JNF projects,” he stressed, “are planned to improve the quality of life in Israel.”
He said that in recent years, JNF has been doing “marvelous things in experimenting in agricultural produce with the least amount of water.” He said that some of the attempts to grow vegetables with brackish water in the Arava gave extraordinary results.
JNF EDUCATIONAL WORK
As for the educational aspect of the JNF work in America, Sternstein said that about 3,000 Jewish schools throughout the United States and Canada are included in the educational program of his organization.
“I can say that the education department of the JNF has the highest impact of any Zionist organization in the U.S.,” said Sternstein, a past president of the American Zionist Federation and a former president of the Zionist Organization of America.
Asked to define the educational message of the JNF to the Jewish children of America, Stern-stein said: “We try to show them their responsibility to Israel as the national Jewish homeland and to teach them to appreciate the vital importance of Israel to their Jewish identity.”
Sternstein succeeded Charlotte Jacobson as president of the JNF. He holds a Doctorate in Medieval Jewish Philosophy. He is the Rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom of Roslyn Heights, Long Island.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
