Israel ConneBH
JNF changes priorities
Shortage in Israel means water is now top concern.
PAT JOHNSON REPORTER
The Jewish National Fund (JNF) was pivotal in the creation of the state of Israel. For more than 100 years, the organization has planted trees and made formerly useless land arable. Now, says the JNF's new national president, there is a whole new fight facing the JNF.
Sandra Posluns, who replaced Vancouver's Naomi Frankenburg as president this past simi-mer, told the Bulletin that the challenges now are even more daunting than the early work toward giving birth to a nation.
"Our objectives of 100 years ago were mainly to purchase land and put as many people as would emigrate to Israel on that land to establish a Jewish homeland," said Posluns. "Today, we have even larger challenges. We have the task of protecting that which we have succeeded in gaining - our land, our water, our right to exist."
The challenges facing Israel are not just from external sources. Though terrorist attacks make the news almost cvciy day, an equally desperate challenge faces Israel as well as all its Middle East neighbors. As the population of the region grows and industrialization takes its toll on the environment, sources of potable water become a top priority. Raising awareness about the water shortage has become of prime importance on Posluns' agenda as the JNFs foremost official in Canada.
"My priorities for my term as president of JNF Canada are to raise funds for many requirements: reclamation of land, infrastructure of new developments, turning around the ecology of our rivers, building reservoirs to hold water on the land, research and devclopmont of new farming methods and so much more," she said.
Posluns has been active in Uie JNF since 1984 and her volun-teerism is a family affair. Her father-in-law, Abe Posluns, was the honoree at Toronto's Negev Dinner that year. Posluns and her husband, Alan, became more familiar with the work of the JNF and decided to devote themselves to building and nurturing the land of Israel, she said.
Posluns tries to go to Israel twice a year and she always dis-
Sandra Posluns
covers new projects created under the auspices of the Jewish National Fimd.
"Each time, I find a wonderful new project that the JNF is doing ... [such as] building a road so that kibbutzim won't have to use a dangerous route near the Syrian-Lebanese border," she said. "I see reservoirs all over the country, capturing and holding precious water. (There are] places I visit in the Negev where the desert has literally been pushed back."
Largely because of the work of the JNF, Israel possesses a very unique statistic.
"We are the only coimtiy in the world to have more trees at the end of the last century than at the beginning of tlie 20th century," Posluns said of Israel.
Frankenburg, Poslun's predecessor in the role, served four years as president and has kind words to say about the new head.
"I think she's a very fine and appropriate person for the job," said Frankenburg, who is now devoting herself to activity in tlie Local Israel Action Team, among other involvements.
Frankenburg said the objective of tlie JNF over tlie years has been the same, though the tactics have changed.
"Our mandate has entirely been to preserve and cnliance tlie environment of the state of Israel," she said. But while that used to mean planting trees -and though tlicy will continue to do so - Frankenbui:g agrees witli Posluns that the emphasis now must be put on a more pressing matter.
"The biggest problem right now is water," she said. □
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