The Blue Box and JNF Propaganda Maps, 1930-1947

Introduction¹

THE INITIATIVE TO USE A box in collecting money for the Jewish National Fund (JNF), in the tradition of the charity boxes commonly used in Jewish institutions, came from Haim Kleinman, a bank clerk from Galicia. He made the suggestion in a 1902 letter to the Zionist newspaper Die Welt and proposed placing such a box in every Jewish home. ² According to the historiography of the JNF, however, the first box was accredited to JNF founder, Herman Shapira, who had placed a tin charity box in his own home before the establishment of the Fund.

Millions of JNF charity boxes had been distributed throughout the world by the end of the 1940s. Each box bore a printed text according to the language of the country in which is was to be used: English for the English speaking countries, German for Central Europe and Hebrew and Yiddish for Eastern Europe. An important characteristic of the boxes until after the First World War was the variety in the design according to the countries in which they were used, and the different manufacturers. Boxes from the second decade of the century in various countries, such as Britain, Poland, Germany, and Palestine, can be identified by a design that included several common elements: their form was rectangular; there was a slot at the top through which to drop coins, and a hook at the back with which to hang the box from the wall. The boxes were painted blue, with three elements on their front—1. the banner—Keren Kayemet Le Yisrael (Jewish National Fund), the Star of David, with an ellipse above it, with the initials of the organization ("KKL" or "JNF") above it. The uniformity of design of the boxes during this decade is probably due to the fact that they were all produced in a factory in Germany, from which they were exported to other countries according to JNF Head office instructions. ³ The blue box became a symbol, not only of the JNF, but of Zionism in general and particularly of the redemption of the Land of Israel. The unique design of the tin box, its blue and white national colors and its symbolic illustrations (especially the map), made it a popular part of Jewish ceremonies and an essential element in the teaching of Jewish values throughout the world.

The spread of propaganda through the use of maps is neither an innovation nor is it unique to the JNF; states, institutions and organizations frequently use the map technique to relay political propaganda or commercial advertisement, to transmit their particular message, their particular "truth." ⁴ The deliberate use of cartography (map making) for propaganda purposes was discussed in scientific literature during the Second World War as a result of the massive use the Germans made of this medium. ⁵ The Germans developed techniques in which maps were used to present reality in a new light, and the most important objective in their production of maps was their ability to connect between the authorities and the people. They adapted cartographic methods in order to transmit political messages through the use of agreed upon symbols, colors, projects, page or text design, etcetera.

A map is not a "divine truth;" it is not reality itself; it is not objective—it is, rather, a representation of the reality which the maker of the map wishes to present. People who look at maps tend to be uncritical, and quite often become more convinced in their opinions by examining maps. This universal phenomenon of blind trust in map representations is known as "cartographic hypnosis." ⁶

The average person is neither aware of, nor can he discern, the many manipulations that occur during map preparation in the deliberate choices of the information to appear on the map and the way it is presented. For example, the scale of colors chosen for a map and the level of contrasts can be used to...