JNF/KKL

Background

http://www.jnf.org/about-jnf/history/?print=t  (selected text, as of August 1, 2016)

“Our History

1901: It All Started With a Dream…

It was the fourth day of the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1901. The delegates had spent the day debating a proposal for the establishment of a national fund to purchase land in Ottoman Empire-controlled Palestine, as had been suggested at the first Congress four years earlier by mathematics professor Zvi Hermann Schapira.

Herzl stood before the delegates and delivered a passionate plea for the immediate establishment of the fund: “After striving for so many years to set up the fund, we do not want to disperse again without having done anything.”  His speech turned the delegates around, the motion passed and the congress resolved that a fund to be called Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael) (JNF-KKL) should be established, and that “the fund shall be the property of the Jewish people as a whole.” JNF’s first undertaking was the collection of £200,000. . . .  And with this, the dream of a national fund–to be used to build the foundations of a Jewish state–became a reality.

Turning the Dream into a Reality

. . .

Krementzky also began publishing JNF stamps, the proceeds of which went into the fund. These stamps were affixed to official Zionist documents as well as personal letters, and many people collected them. The first stamp was issued in 1902 and showed the Star of David and the name ‘Zion.’

The Jewish National Fund (1907?)

by Joseph D. Jacobs

“3.     METHODS OF COLLECTION.

      Contributions to the Fund are secured by the following methods:

(a)     National Fund Stamps.–Stamps with various pictorial designs have been printed and their value has been fixed in each country to correspond with the smallest current coin, for example in America one cent, in France 5 centimes, in England one halfpenny. The practice is to affix these stamps to letters, programmes, cards, invitations to Zionist meetings, pamphlets, booklets and so forth.”

CATALOGUES

We are very indebted to the late Sidney Rochlin for his monumental “Handbook Of The Issues Of the Jewish National Fund” (Copyrighted 1988, 1990, 2003) (UPDATED 2017–“Rochlin’s HANDBOOK OF THE ISSUES OF THE JEWISH NATIONAL FUND); and it is used to indicate Catalogue Numbers for all these items. We are very thankful to Howard S. Chapman for Publishing and Distributing (and updating) this publication.

We are also very grateful to the late Jay L. Kaplove for creating his Topical Listing  in his Stamp Catalogue of the Jewish National Fund, 1973. Both the stamp and non stamp collector can experience directly to these areas: Biblical Quotations, Cities and Towns of Israel, Organizations and Events, Paintings and Sculpture, Personalities, Places of Interest in Israel, Scenes from the Diaspora, Symbols and Concepts, and Radio Stamps.

The Rochlin catalog numbering system (e. g., Rochlin 1, Rochlin AH 3, etc.) is used throughout this part of the SIP website for JNF/KKL items, unless otherwise indicated. “Rochlin’s HANDBOOK OF THE ISSUES OF THE JEWISH NATIONAL FUND.” Published and Distributed by: Education Fund, Society of Israel Philatelist, Inc. 2017.

NOTE: copies are available from this SIP Website “Bookstore.”