A $15,000,000 loan to the Jewish National Fund in Jerusalem has been granted by the Bank of America. National Trust and Savings Association of California, it was announced here today by Judge Morris Rothenberg, president of the J.N.F. in the United States. The loan is for a four-year period, Judge Rothenberg said, adding that the funds would be applied immediately “toward the purchase and improvement of land in Israel and to help the mass settlement of Jews there.”
Dr. Abraham Granovsky, world president of the Jewish National Fund, in a cable from Jerusalem, declared that granting of the loan would enable the Fund to “pursue and amplify” its present large-scale activities, including acquisition of large tracts of land, afforestation, development of water resources and expansion of agricultural settlements.
Judge Rothenberg asserted that the loan was an “evidence of the confidence which American banking institutions place in the agencies supporting the work of Jewish settlement in Israel.” It was made possible, he said, “because of the contributions of American Jewry to the United Jewish Appeal–from which the J.N.F. receives its chief income–and to the traditional fund-raising program of the Jewish National Fund.”
Russell G. Smith, executive vice-president of the Bank of America National Trust and Savings Association, speaking on behalf of the bank, stated that the loan was made on a sound basis to provide for constructive accomplishment. “The Jewish National Fund has established itself as a credit-worthy institution and this loan represents the fulfillment of banking policy that deserving borrowers are entitled to credit for proper business purposes,” he said.
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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.
