JNF to Distribute Christmas Trees

By JTA December 6, 2012

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.

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