ABSTRACT
Before the independence of Israel, Zionist land policy relied primarily upon the acquisitions made and held as a permanent, public, Jewish trust by the Jewish National Fund (JNF). As the JNF was an agency of the World Zionist Organization, its landholdings were, of course, uniquely important for Zionist policy, since the Organization alone determined how they were to be used. The Zionists placed little reliance on lands held by private Jewish owners or by Jewish non-Zionist philanthropic organizations as a resource for the close settlement of Jews. Perhaps the greatest test of the methods and techniques developed in Palestine in order to retrain and resettle Jewish immigrants was their application to the problem of refugees, particularly German refugees after 1932. German Jews contributed in significant measure to the very noticeable development of industry during the years after 1932.
