This Keren Hayesod Sacrifice Bond certificate represents more of a sacrifice than a bond.

Issued in 1922, it was part of a fundraising initiative “for the upbuilding of Palestine as a homeland for the Jewish people” and records a sacrifice “in accordance with the ancient law of Maaser”  (maaser is tithing or giving one-tenth away to charity first mentioned in the Torah in relation to Abraham).

The certificate makes it clear that the investment is made for the Jewish people, and it will yield no return of money to the “investor”.  It does much more than that.  It says it will realize the prayer of centuries, the hope of millions, and it will continue the historic associations of Israel and Palestine kept alive amidst medieval persecutions and publicly recognized by Britain in the Balfour Declaration of 1917.  The Bond linked the donor to the Land of Israel restored as a centre of Jewish Life.

Keren Hayesod (at the time, in........

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