Changes Affecting JNF Discussed by American Directors

The J.N.F. has emerged from the Zionist Congress, recently held in Jerusalem, stronger and a more important factor in the upbuilding of the State of Israel than it has ever been before, Dr. Harris J. Levine, president of the Jewish National Fund of America, declared at a meeting of the board of directors of the JNF held at the Commodore Hotel and called specially to receive a report on the proceedings of the recent Zionist Congress as they affect the Jewish National Fund.

Dr. Levine explained that the only change introduced by the resolutions adopted by the World Zionist Congress with respect to the Zionist funds is the following: whereas heretofore the JNF share in the United Palestine Appeal proceeds was turned over directly to the Jewish National Fund of America for transmission to the JNF in Jerusalem, henceforth all the proceeds of the UPA will go through the Keren Hayesod to the Jewish Agency, with the understanding that the JNF receive an adequate allocation from the campaign funds, to be fixed by the Zionist Actions Committee.

Dr. Levine stressed the fact that the traditional collections of the Jewish National Fund which have been carried on over a period of half a century, such as fund-raising for the purchase of dunams of land in Israel, Golden Book inscriptions; blue-and-white boxes, as well as collections in connection with Jewish holidays and family celebrations such as birthdays, marriages and births and the like, will not only continue unabated but will be greatly expanded.

Mendel N. Fisher, executive director of the Jewish National Fund of America, said that the JNF will soon present to American Jewry a number of important plans for the support of the JNF projects in Israel, including the project of the draining of the Huleh swamp region, which has recently figured in the news as a subject of international controversy between Israel and Syria.