Eyal Ostrinsky elected as new chairman of JNF-KKL

Eyal Ostrinsky has been elected as the new chairman of the Jewish National Fund-KKL, sources in the organization say.

Ostrinsky, who represents the pluralistic/liberal bloc of parties in the World Zionist Organization, will serve for the next 2.5 years following today’s board of directors vote. He will be replaced by a representative of Likud for the second half of the five-year term, as agreed upon in a WZO power-sharing deal signed in November.

A long-time veteran of KKL and WZO, Ostrinsky most recently served as chief of staff to the WZO vice chairman and KKL board member Yizhar Hess.

KKL-JNF owns approximately 13% of the total land in Israel (roughly 2.5 million dunams or 620,000 acres), and commands an annual budget of more than a billion dollars to be used for Jewish causes.