Behind the Headlines JNF Still Pioneering

“We have to return to the pioneer era. It has become a necessity to bring back the Jewish people to the realization that the Jewish State is still in a process of pioneer development.” This was the assessment of Jacob Tsur, World Chairman of the Jewish National Fund, the organization that adopted pioneerism as its flag and helped change the history of the Jewish people.

“As a matter of fact,” he said, “the crisis of the Yom Kippur War is due to the feeling that Israel was a normal state existing in a sort of a static reality. This, of course, is false. We are now in the midst of a struggle for independence….therefore, one of the lessons of the current crisis is that we have to return to the pioneer era.”

“I always saw the work of the JNF as the highest expression of our pioneer era” Tsur said in an interview the other day at the Waldorf Astoria hotel where he was attending the National Assembly of the JNF. “Over the years,” Tsur observed “we launched in assemblies like this all over the Jewish world new ideas of pioneer incursions into new and then unknown areas. That is how we came to speak of the Galilee, of the Negev, of the Jordan Valley of the Arava, as the future areas of developments of Israel, soon to be converted in a living and permanent reality.”

FOUNDED 75 YEARS AGO

The JNF was founded almost 75 years ago by the Zionist movement to fulfill its policy of return to the land by purchasing land in Israel for Jewish settlements. According to Tsur the JNF is still committed to its initial goal of land purchasing: “We continue to buy land in Israel from Arabs and other non-Jewish landowners (Christian institutions, for instance.) Every year we spend millions of dollars to purchase land, especially when the land is important for establishing and strengthening Israel’s standing in its home land.”

These considerations, Tsur said, were made in the newly purchased land around Jerusalem, in territories that are still classified as “administered.” While the initial goal of the JNF was land purchasing the emphasis nowadays is on land reclamation, for as Tsur explained, most of the land in Israel is already owned by the JNF and the challenge is to make those lands blossom. “Our main task is to expand land reclamation, to fortify Israel’s borders and develop new areas for settlement. When a new settlement is about to take place the first task of land reclamation is done by the JNF. Our experience,” he says, “shows that no land is ready for cultivation unless it was reclaimed.” According to Tsur a reclamation of one acre of land costs between $400 to $1,200.

FORMER DIPLOMAT

Tsur, a pleasant man who speaks about the JNF with enthusiasm and love, was one of Israel’s first diplomats. He served as Israeli Ambassador to Paris from 1953 – 1959, after serving on diplomatic missions in South America, first in Montevideo and then in Buenos Aires.

Born in Russia in 1906, he emigrated to Palestine with his parents after the First World War. He completed his secondary school education in Jerusalem and his university studies in Florence and at the Sorbonne. before returning to Palestine where he devoted himself to the Zionist movement and served as the head of the publicity service of the Jewish National Fund. Later, he was entrusted with a number of missions to Europe and the Far East. In the Second World War he served as liaison officer between the Jewish Agency and the British Command in Egypt, and afterwards played an active part in the struggle for the creation of the State of Israel.

Tsur is also the author of several books and frequently publishes articles in the Israeli and the French press.

On a few occasions some have asked whether after the Jewish State was established the JNF was still needed as a separate body since its functions could be carried out by the Israeli government. Tsur does not agree. According to him, “Israel is a country engaged in immigration absorption and development for Jews from all over the world. Therefore, some of the burden has to be shared by the Jewish people: The people of Israel,” Tsur insists “cannot do these jobs themselves. The lands that are owned by the JNF were bought and reclaimed with the money of the Jewish people.” The JNF is a partner to the Israel Land Authority and together they own 90 percent of Israel’s lands The budget of the JNF for 1974-75 is about $30 million, derived from fund raising in the U.S., elsewhere and revenues of the JNF from its lands in Israel.

The JNF’s accomplishments since the creation of Israel in 1948 are difficult to ignore, simply because they are too visible: They include planting of some 120 million trees in the hills and deserts of Israel, and reclamation of more than 125 million acres. “The 150,000 acres covered with trees are more than just an aesthetic achievement,” Tsur contends, “It is the greatest contribution to the ecological problem of an ever expanding new Israel — it is a preparation for a new way of life of a strong and secure society which will live on our territory in the year 1990.”

Presently the JNF is engaged with a new $6 million Bicentennial Project linking a large region southwest of Jerusalem with 200 years of American independence. The Project will also mark the 75th anniversary of the JNF. Projects of the JNF, as detailed by Tsur, are a plan to build “a green belt of trees around the city of Beersheba” and creation of a large national park between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem near the Latrun monastery.