More than 2,000 people, most of them gentiles, attended a David Ben Gurion centennial gathering in Helsinki, Finland, last week, under the auspices of Jewish National Fund world chairman Moshe Rivlin. The chairman, back from a tour of Scandinavia, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Sunday that the interest in JNF’s work among non-Jews in all the Scandinavian countries was phenomenal–especially in view of the small Jewish communities in those countries.
In Norway, he said, another mass rally took place with a Ben Gurion-JNF theme. In Denmark, Rivlin was welcomed at the Royal Palace and discussed with a clearly fascinated Crown Prince Frederik Israeli methods of afforestation and land reclamation. Rivlin said the Prince was both informed and interested in matters of ecology and quality of life in Israel.
At the gathering in Oslo, Rivlin said: “Some sixty percent of Israel’s total area is the Negev, and we are enjoined to pursue David Ben Gurion’s vision of turning this barren space into fertile and productive land.”
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.
