Jewish National Fund Conference in Palestine Issues Appeal for Ten Million Dollars

An appeal to the Jews in democratic countries to raise $10,000,000 within a year for redemption of lands in Palestine was issued here today by the Jewish National Fund at its “Voice of the lands” conference, held at the Hebrew University on the occasion of the theirs anniversary of the death of M. M. Ussishkin, former world president of the J.N.F.

The proclamation also demanded the speedy removal of the “intolerable restrictions still hampering our activity in the sphere of land purchase.” It expressed confidence that when demobilized Jewish soldiers return to their homes in Palestine, they will be provided with plots for houses, or with farms.

The conference adopted a resolution thanking the Jews of South Africa for launching a campaign for the establishment of a Ussishkin memorial in the form of a new national assemble building in Palestine to house Zionist congress and, when Palestine becomes a Jewish State, to serve as seat of the supreme state councils. The sum of $400,000 will be raised for this purpose among South African Jewish of which a third has already been secured.

It was reported at the conference that during the past Jewish year, Jews in democratic countries contributed $7,000,000 to the Jewish National Fund, the largest sum ever raised during a single year in the entire history of the J.N.F. Dr. Abraham Granovsky, managing director of the organization, reported to the conference that despite the existing restrictions on land question by Jews, the Jewish National Fund acquired 250,000 dunams of land during the five years since the restrictions came into existence, of which 60,000 dunams were acquired during the past year. He disclosed that the J.N.F. has already alloted plots for suburban housing of 2,500 families of Jewish soldiers.