JNF to Distribute Christmas Trees
The Jewish National Fund will distribute free Christmas trees to local churches, monasteries, convents, embassies and foreign journalists.
Private individuals can also buy trees for a token fee, the organization said this week. Distribution will occur in mid-December.
Some of the Arizona cypress trees are grown in a grove adjacent to the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund offices in Givat Yishayahu in central Israel. They grow to a height of about 6 1/2 feet in three years, when they are cut for use as Christmas trees, according to JNF.
In northern Israel, KKL-JNF foresters grow plots of Arizona cedar trees in several forests. As Christmas approaches, the foresters thin out the crowded woodlands and sell the trees to the public for a token sum. This also prevents illegal felling of the trees, according to the organization.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
— Alyssa Katz, editor-in-chief
