Jewish National Fund
Jewish organization founded in 1901
The Jewish National Fund (Hebrew: קֶרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, Keren Kayemet LeYisrael; commonly known by the acronym KKL-JNF or simply JNF) is a non-profit organization founded in 1901 to buy land and encourage Jewish settlement (aliyah) in Ottoman Syria (later Mandatory Palestine, subsequently Israel and the Palestinian territories). By 2007, it owned 13% of the total land in Israel. Since its inception, the JNF has planted over 240 million trees in Israel. It has also built 180 dams and reservoirs, developed 250,000 acres (1,000 km2) of land and established more than 1,000 parks.
The JNF has faced numerous criticisms for its role in the displacement of Palestinian Bedouins, the construction of Israeli military installations, the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank—considered illegal under international law, its refusal to lease to non-Jews, and its planting of non-indigenous trees potentially harmful or dangerous for Israel's ecosystem.
Name
The JNF was founded at the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901 as the Nationalfonds (National Fund). On April 8, 1907, it was incorporated in London as an "Association Limited by Guarantee" under the name "Juedischer Nationalfonds (Keren Kajemeth Le Jisroel), Limited". In October 1921, the company's name was changed to "Keren Kajemeth Le Jisroel Limited", and in January 1926 it was further changed to "Keren Kayemeth Leisrael Limited".
The name Keren Kayemet comes from the Mishnah. Tractate Peah (1:1) lists the types of good deeds whose rewards are enjoyed in this world, while the principal merit will be in the world to come: hakeren kayemet lo l'olam haba.
“Jewish National Fund” enters the record as jewish organization founded in 1901. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Jewish, National and Fund can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Jewish National Fund” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Jewish, National and Fund provides the most credible route into that argument.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q696658. VIAF identifies the subject as 312739426. The Library of Congress control number is n80046906. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1901, 2007, 1907 and 1921.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jewish National Fund” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.