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The Executive of the Jewish Agency in one of its meetings in the National Institutions Building in Jerusalem, 1937. From right to left: Eliyahu Dobkin, Moshe Shertok, Eliezer Kaplan, Werner Senator, Yitzhak Gruenbaum, David Ben-Gurion (Chairman of the Executive), Arthur Ruppin, Emil Schmorak, Rabbi Y.L. Fishman, Moshe Shapira
of 5708-1948, determined that Aliya and absorption were not a purely Israeli task but rather an international Jewish objective, and that the Jewish Agency, which also represented the Jews of the diaspora, would be responsible for this.
The government and the Jewish Agency established a joint committee for coordinating positions on issue of Aliya and absorption, and at the end of 1952, the Knesset passed the "Status of the World Zionist Organization – Jewish Agency (Status) Law, 5713-1952." The law established the status of the Jewish Agency, its duties and the coordination between it and the various government ministries. In the summer of 1954, a covenant was signed, as per Section 10 of said law, between the government and the Zionist Executive and the Jewish Agency, and the areas of cooperation were precisely defined. The sections of the covenant dealt with organizing Aliya, participation in the absorption of Olim, Youth Aliya, agricultural settlement, purchase of lands and developing them in conjunction with KKL-JNF and Keren Hayesod, participation in the development enterprises in Israel, in encouraging investment of private capital in Israel, aiding cultural enterprises and institutions of higher education and more.
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