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JERUSALEM ROTARY CLUB
presented 2013
http://www.jerusalemrotaryclub.org/

In 1928, Jim Davidson from Canada was asked to bring the Rotary message to Asia and the Near East.

He started off in Istanbul and then continued to Athens and then Cairo. In fact he founded the Cairo club on Jan 2, 1929.

He then proceeded to Jerusalem where with another Rotarian, from California, he worked with a few locals to lay the ground work for the club.

The founding meeting was 1/22/29 and they had  21 charter members. Most of them were British officials, who administered Palestine, at that time. However, there were also Arab and Jewish members. Indeed, this was a remarkable achievement and a credit to Rotary.

Also remarkable was that the club was sponsored by the Cairo club which was chartered only 20 days earlier.

The Club met regularly during the war years and continued to include British, Jewish and Arab members. Membership averaged nearly 60 members throughout those years.

The Jerusalem club along with those in the neighboring countries of Egypt, Sudan,Lebanon and Syria were in District 89. When the State of Israel was established in 1948 this arrangement could no longer exist.

Therefore, R.I. formed a separate district to include the Jerusalem club and three others, at the time. Today there are 61 Israeli Rotary clubs in District 2490.