JNF Approves Budget of Il 374.5 M in Move to Enable It to Play Major Role in Zionist Tasks Facing is

The Jewish National Fund board of directors this week approved an IL 374.5 million budget which, in the words of chairman Moshe Rivlin, will enable the JNF to play a major role in “the real Zionist tasks” facing the nation. The budget figure indicates a 25 percent increase over last year, and Rivlin said he hoped a quicker rate of increase in income in future years would enable the JNF to expand its efforts even faster.

The major field of activity–preparing land and infrastructure for agricultural settlements–would see a spurt forward in the fiscal year ahead, Rivlin promised. Twenty-five settlement areas already approved by the government and the Jewish Agency would be readied by JNF heavy equipment teams for living in and working in. Longer range plans, Rivlin noted, call for 80 new settlements–on both sides of the green line–in the next five years, and 180 during the next decade.

Rivlin said he would love to see one of the world’s Jewish communities “adopting” one of the JNF’s top-priority projects: the building of a water reservoir near Hatzeva, in the Arava on the way to Eilat. He said such a reservoir, at the focus of an elaborate new irrigation system, could facilitate the addition of another 12 settlements in the area to the existing eight. The cost: around IL 30 million, Rivlin said.

Appearing at his first press conference since assuming the JNF chairmanship in January, Rivlin said he looked on his new work as “a vital Zionist challenge” and did it “with love.” All three areas of the JNF’s activities–land development, a forestation and land-linked education abroad–could be significantly expanded in the years ahead, said the dynamic former director general of the Jewish Agency who was unanimously voted in as chief of JNF.

RIVLIN ANNOUNCES ‘CHILDREN’S FOREST’

Looking ahead to the 30th anniversary year of the State’s founding, Rivlin announced a world-wide JNF “Children’s Forest” project which would be intended to forge new and meaningful bonds between Israeli school children and their Jewish colleagues abroad.

The forest would be in the hills of Jerusalem, Rivlin said. Israeli children would be asked to write to Jewish children in the diaspora suggesting that they participate together in planting three trees each: one in the name of an Israeli child, one in the name of a friend abroad, and one in memory of an anonymous child who perished in the Holocaust and who, “were it not for that, would also be participating in the partnership of building Israel.”

The Israeli Ministry of Education is supporting the project, Rivlin noted, and Jewish educational organizations abroad would be asked to help, too. The idea had already been received “with tremendous enthusiasm,” he said, by Jewish communities around the world.

In Bern, Switzerland, for example, a leading department store had begun “selling trees in Israel” at 20 francs ($7) a tree. “These must be the most expensive saplings ever sold.” Rivlin noted. He was glad to report that the idea was “doing fine” and said it might be extended to other places as a fund-raising method for JNF a forestation work.

Shimon Ben-Shemesh, JNF director general, reported that one-quarter of JNF overseas income comes from legacies. He said that a good part of the JNF shlicim’s work was involved in counseling on legacy possibilities. Ben-Shemesh said there were 21 JNF shlichim around the world. He noted that this is not a large number considering their manifold tasks. He said none stay abroad for longer than four years at a stretch.

Meir Shamir, head of the JNF’s land works section, said Israelis had “learned to use recreation facilities” better over the years and hence there was a drop in vandalism in JNF parks and woodland picnic sites.