John D. Rockefeller Gives $200,000 for Archaeological Museum in Palestine

(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

The offer of John D. Rockefeller Jr. of $2,000,000 to establish a museum of Palestinian archaeology in Jerusalem was accepted by High Commissioner Lord Plumer for the Palestine Government.

Under the conditions of the gift the museum must be constructed within three years and conform with the Jerusalem town-planning ordinance.

Palestine has long been in urgent need of a building to house the monuments of a country whose past is perhaps of more importance to the world than that of any other land, a representative of Mr. Rockefeller stated to the Jewish Daily Bulletin.

The Palestine Government plans to erect the museum on a’ plot of land, which it has donated, outside and immediately north of the wall of Jerusalem in a position commanding a view of the Mount of Olives. The new development of the site and the new museum building will form a part of the so-called “Jerusalem Town-Planning Scheme” now being carried out by the Palestine Government.

The new museum will be erected and administered by the Palestine Government. It will not only provide ample facilities for displaying the collections now in hand but also for an anticipated expansion in the future, as a result of discoveries being made each season by the numerous archaeological expeditions now excavating in Palestine.

In the distribution of the new gift, the plans of the Palestine Government call for a million dollars for erecting and equipping the building, leaving the remaining million dollars as an endowment for the future maintenance of the museum. both as a center of archaeological research and as an institution devoted to popular education.