December 29, 1901
At the Fifth Zionist Congress, after the delegates repeat their action from previous congresses and vote to table the idea of a national land fund, Theodor Herzl delivers an impassioned address to the delegates, urging them to take action immediately, and the motion passes by a vote of 105-82.
The Congress resolves to call the land-buying organization the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth L’Israel) and says, “The fund shall be the property of the Jewish people as a whole.” The Hebrew name, Keren Kayemeth, comes from a Talmudic teaching about good deeds.
The idea for a national fund to finance land acquisition in Palestine predated the Zionist movement. It was first proposed by Rabbi Judah Alkalai, leader of the Jewish community in Zemun on the outskirts of Belgrade, some 50 years earlier. In 1884, at the first meeting of the Hovevei Zion group in Katowice, the idea was again proposed by Zvi Hermann Schapira, a Lithuanian-born rabbi and lecturer in mathematics at Heidelberg University in Germany.
At the First Zionist Congress in 1897, Schapira proposed the idea again. It was tabled when Max Bodenheimer, a lawyer from Cologne, Germany, insisted that a Jewish bank should be established before a land fund. The First Congress passed a resolution stating, “The assembly declares that in principle it regards as essential the creation of a national fund and the establishment of a Jewish bank, and to these ends, the Actions Committee to be elected present to the next Congress a carefully prepared plan.”
At each of the successive three congresses, the creation of a national land fund was postponed but tabled.
The Jewish Colonial Trust bank was approved at the Second Zionist Congress in 1898 and was incorporated in 1899.
Upon its creation, JNF vows to collect £200,000. The first donation is made by Yona Krementzky, who becomes JNF’s first chairman in 1902. Krementzky implements the idea of placing a dedicated JNF tzedakah box in every Jewish home. The second JNF donation is made by Herzl.
In 1905, JNF begins buying land. Despite his position at the First Zionist Congress, Bodenheimer becomes the second leader of the Jewish National Fund in 1907.
Since its inception, JNF has planted more than 250 million trees, built over 210 reservoirs and dams, and developed over 250,000 acres of land, in addition to fulfilling other Israeli infrastructure needs.
