Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 409

by contributions from individuals. Even the Government is not yet prepared to contribute towards the maintenance of the Institute, though the Board will not cease to demand a Government grant towards the budget. The Board of the Institute continues in its efforts to reduce to a minimum its dependence upon the assistance of external factors, and the Agency Executive is no longer required to contribute from £5,000 to £6,000 per annum to the Institute as formerly. However, the Technical Institute in Palestine which is unique in its character as a Jewish institution cannot exist, advance, absorb Jewish youth from the Diaspora, and fulfil its task as the propagator of Jewish technical science, without active participation by the Zionist movement and the Jewish Agency in the solution of the three financial problems confronting the Institute, namely, the balancing of the budget, the drawing up of a scheme for the consolidation of its debts, and the repair and extension of the buildings of the Institute and their preparation for the absorption of additional students and for research work. 5.—THE BIALIK FOUNDATION. 1. At the beginning of its activity during the period under review, the Jewish Agency discussed ways and means for furthering Hebrew culture and the Hebrew language. In January, 1934, a conference was called for that purpose, which was attended by the late Ch. N. Bialik, when a plan of cultural activity was discussed that would come within the competence of the Propaganda Department. However, the limited means at its disposal prevented the materialisation of the plan, which in practice was confined to the creation of contacts with the Hebrew educational and cultural centres in the Diaspora. 2. After the death of Bialik, the Executive regarded it as a debt of honour to establish a foundation or a cultural institution in the name of the seer of our generation, which should be administered in the spirit of his grand schemes. The Executive communicated with the organisations and central institutions in the country (the Association of Authors, the Hebrew University, the Brith Ivrit Olamit, the Vaad Leumi) for the purpose of giving a form to this foundation. A proposal was made, to establish a special cultural fund in the name of Ch. N. Bialik. However, after a thorough discussion of the problem it was decided not to create a third fund, which was bound to compete with the existing national Funds, but to establish under the auspices of the. Jewish Agency a special institution named the Bialik Foundation with the object of furthering Hebrew culture, language, literature, science and art. The Jewish Agency allocated £P. 5,000 for the year 5695 for the initial stages of the Foundation, which will have no financial collections of its own, hoping that it might succeed in obtaining further amounts in order to extend the scope of its activities. . 409