KKL-JNF, one of Israel´s founding national institutions, was established in 1901 at the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basle and spearheaded the efforts to restore the Jewish People to its ancient homeland.  

Since the first land purchase in Erez Israel in the early 1900s for and on behalf of the Jewish People, KKL-JNF has served as the Jewish People´s trustee of the land, initiating and charting development work to enable Jewish settlement from the border in the north to the edge of the desert and Arava in the south.  

KKL-JNF´s work in its early decades sketched and determined the boundaries of the State of Israel that rose in 1948.  Its extensive afforestation endeavor, begun soon after its inception and pursued to the present, has no parallel. It greened a rocky, dry, desolate land, planting more than 200 million trees; patches of green, forests and parks that were developed with the help of the far-flung Jewish People and have become leisure and recreation sites benefiting Israel´s residents, green lungs boosting environmental quality.

More than a thousand communities all over the country bear the KKL-JNF imprint – whether by virtue of land purchase or land development and reclamation.  The various water projects, dams and reservoirs it established or sponsored contribute significantly to the country´s water economy. 

Finally, its highly-important Zionist education work, in the past as in the present, bonds Diaspora Jewry to the homeland of Israel.
The Key Tangible Objectives of KKL/JNF are:

• Sustainability
• Afforestation
• Bringing Streams Back to Life

New Zealand Project in Israel
JNF New Zealand has adopted the Nachal Assaf Project. Nachal Assaf is an area in the north-western Negev that has seen considerable erosion and river bed deterioration as a result of climate and land use changes. JNF New Zealand wishes to raise US$250,000 between 2007 and 2010 as it’s focused contribution to environmental sustainability as well as making the Nachal Assaf area in to an attractive environmental park for us by all passers-by for learning and recreational purposes.

Contact Details

Auckland President: Gerard Friedlander
Phone: (09) 303 3334
Address: PO Box 87513 Meadowbank, Auckland

Wellington President: Liz Gianoutsos
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  
Phone: (04) 232 7465
Address: 80 Webb St, Wellington