One out of every five people in Israel lives on land acquired, owned and developed by the Jewish National Fund, Elias M. Epstein, overseas director of the J.N.F. in Jerusalem, stated today on his arrival in New York to confer with leaders of the Fund in this country. He added that in the course of more than 50 years of its existence the J.N.F. has invested in land purchase and development in Israel the sum of $210,000,000, about 80 percent of which was contributed by American Jews.
“As many as $10,000 people, constituting 22 percent of the Jewish population in Israel, ” Mr. Epstein explained, “are now living on J.N.F. territory in town and in country. The majority is to be found in rural zones, but a substantial number lives in towns and urban suburbs on building sites owned by the Jewish National Fund.”
In analyzing the ownership of the land in Israel, Mr. Epstein pointed out that of the less than 10,000,000 dunams of arable land in Israel, the Jewish National Fund owns or has contracted for 3,217,587 dunams, or more than one-third. Of the 610 towns and villages and local councils, as many as 79 percent are established on J.N.F. land; of the agricultural settlements as many as 92 percent have been built on Jewish National Fund land.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
