The ESCO Foundation for Palestine, or just ESCO Foundation, was a private

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

family foundation set up in 1940 by Frank Cohen and named in honor of his wife Ethel Cohen. It was focused on Jewish projects in

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

, later

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

Publication

One of its best known projects was the publication of ''Palestine - A Study Of Jewish Arab And British Policies'' in spring 1947, a two-volume 1350-page source document published by

Yale University Press Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day and Clarence Day, grandsons of Benjamin Day, and became a department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and ope ...

covering the history of

, primarily created by (although not attributed to) Isaac Baer Berkson. The work was used by the

UNSCOP The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was created on 15 May 1947 in response to a United Kingdom government request that the General Assembly of the United Nations, General Assembly "make recommendations under article 10 o ...

in their deliberations over the future of the region. The work for the study was begun on 18 April 1942, and the draft versions were used throughout the 1940s by

Abba Hillel Silver Abba Hillel Silver (January 28, 1893 – November 28, 1963) was an American Rabbi and Zionist leader. He was a key figure in the mobilization of American support for the founding of the State of Israel. Biography Born Abraham Silver in ...

's American Zionist Emergency Council.

Members

"ESCO" is an

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

for Ethel S. Cohen, one of the founders and the wife of Frank Cohen. Other members of the ESCO boards were: Irvin M. Berliner, Dr. Israel S. Chipkin, Mark Eisner, Marian Gerber Greenberg, Harry Handler, Dr. Leo Honor, Rose G. Jacobs (President), Dr. Mordecai M. Kaplan, Leah Klepper and Dr. Israel S. Wechsler.Foreword Palestine - A Study Of Jewish Arab And British Policies, Volume 1
/ref>

Henrietta Szold Henrietta Szold ( , ; December 21, 1860 – February 13, 1945) was an American-born Jewish Zionist leader and founder of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. In 1942, she co-founded Ihud, a political party in Mandatory Pal ...

was an advisor to the foundation.

Publications

Palestine - A Study Of Jewish Arab And British Policies, Volume 1

Palestine - A Study Of Jewish Arab And British Policies, Volume 2

References

{{reflist Jewish-American press Zionist organizations in the United States Jewish organizations established in 1940 1940 establishments in the United States