Land in the Box

The Blue Box

The Blue Box Exhibition

"Painting the Blue Box Green"

The three- week long exhibition of giant Blue Boxes was set up on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel-Aviv during which some 60 thousand tourists visited. The Blue Boxes will be sold at public auction, where proceeds will be dedicated to the rehabilitation of forests that were burnt during Lebanon War II. To see the video clip of the exhibition, click here.

Twenty one Blue Boxes are on display, designed by leading Israeli artists who donated their time, talents and energies for this purpose. Amongst them are the photographer, Ziv Koren, the jewelry designer, Michal Nagarin, interior designer, Gadi Halperin, cartoonists, Uri Fink and Danny Karman, painters and sculptors, Zvi Geva and Tsvika Lahman and others. The aim is to raise consciousness amongst Israelis and worldwide, about renewing the forests of the North.

For further information about the exhibition, click here.

In the Beginning…

Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael (KKL) was established on December 29, 1901 (9 Tevet 5562) at the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basle. To raise funds for it, Haim Kleinman, a bank clerk from Nadvorna, Galicia, soon placed a box in his office and sent off a letter to Die Welt, the Zionist newspaper in Vienna, notifying it accordingly:

"In keeping with the saying, 'bit and bitty fill the kitty' and following the Congress resolution on KKL's founding, I put together an 'Erez Israel box', stuck the words 'National Fund' on it and placed it in a prominent spot in my office. The results, given the extent of the experiment so far, have been astonishing. I suggest that like-minded people, and particularly all Zionist officials, collect contributions to KKL in this way."

The Blue Box is Born

The rest is history – for dozens of years a Blue Box could be seen in almost every Diaspora home and every Jewish institution in Erez Israel and abroad: a cherished, popular means to realize the Zionist vision of establishing a state for the Jewish People. The funds raised through it (the "pushke," as it was widely known) were an instrument to redeem the land in Erez Israel on which the Jewish home was to rise. But the Blue Box was more than just a fundraising device. From the beginning, it was an important educational vehicle spreading the Zionist word and forging the bond between the Jewish People and their ancient homeland.

The Blue Box has changed form many times over the years and often wasn't even blue. It is a symbol. A symbol of KKL-JNF and its efforts to develop the land of Israel, plant forests, create parks, prepare soil for agriculture and settlement, carve out new roads and build water reservoirs. A symbol of connectedness with the land.

The Blue Box Collection

A collection of KKL-JNF Blue Boxes is presented in our Educational Center and Museum in Tel-Aviv. Click here for more about the museum and visiting hours

KKL-JNF Blue Boxes are available for a nominal contribution .

If you are interested in obtaining one, please contact our office in your local area.

The photos are taken from the KKL-JNF Blue Box Exhibition prepared in co-operation with Prof. Shaul Hadani.

Germany, 1920: the first box to rest on Theodor Herzl's desk. It has been preserved in Herzl's Room on Mt. Herzl, Jerusalem.

1934: This "new" version became KKL-JNF's official Blue Box after three decades of varied and various forms. White on a blue background, it showed a map of Erez Israel with the lands that had been redeemed. A white Star of David and the words, 'Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael', completed the picture.

Israel, 1960s: a box with paper wrapping aimed at fundraising for KKL-JNF nurseries.

Eretz Israel, late 1930s: for use in England.

Jerusalem, British Mandate: a tiny Blue Box, the size of a matchbox.

Israel, 1980s: Plastic Blue Box.

Warsaw Ghetto Blue Box: found burnt in the ruins after the Holocaust.

United States, 1960s: Hand-held Blue Box for street canvassing.

United States, 1950: Children's Blue Box.

Brazil, 1950s.

Germany, late 1930s: Leather Blue Box, in the form of a prayer book.

A bereavement box found in 1989 in a synagogue in Jerusalem's Old City's Jewish Quarter. Weight: 25 kg.