It all depends if you have initial information on the land. If you have the
numbers for Parcel/Section - then you can first find out in which land
registry office the information is held.
The following link will help you find out in which office the records are,
by entering Parcel/Section numbers:

http://www.justice.gov.il/MOJHeb/HagafLrishomMekakein/LeskotRishomHamkarkein/
calc.htm

List (in Hebrew) of land registry offices and contact information (9 offices
all over Israel) can be found at:

http://www.justice.gov.il/MOJHeb/HagafLrishomMekakein/LeskotRishomHamkarkein/
YeziratKesherLishkotHarishum.htm

By approaching the land registry office you will be able to get an extract

from the registry (computerized). This is open to everybody, and subject to

a 59 NIS fee. Extracts may be ordered through the Internet as well, in a few
commercial sites.

By a special request, you may get an "Historical extract" that will show you
who the previous owners of the property were. Since you want to go back to
the 1930's, they will be able to provide you with a photocopy of the
original books, that were written by hand during the British Mandate.

If you can establish sufficient close relationship with the owners (Probate
Order and such) then according to the Land (Registration) Regulations you
will be allowed to have a copy of the Deed, according to which the
transaction was done. The Deed will provide the names of the parties, the
remuneration, a description of the property and sometimes it will provide
the name of the lawyer and/or proxy who were involved in the transaction.

Looking at the file will reveal a power of attorney, if the person did not
execute the transaction by himself.

If you have no information over the property and have just general
information ("family lore" etc.) and it is probable that your relatives
never got to Israel, you can check with the Administrator General's office,
if the property is held by the Administrator General. You can do this by
sending an email to Mr. Aharon Shindler at the Ministry of Justice in
Jerusalem:
For introduction in English at the Ministry of Justice office, see:
http://www.justice.gov.il/MOJEng/AdministratorGeneral/

Absentee Inquiry Form may be downloaded here:
http://www.justice.gov.il/NR/rdonlyres/2BDAEF3C-C1B6-4A7B-AA46-
7D617933BF40/0/tofesEnglish.doc

In the form you will see Mr. Shindler's email address.

When you write to the Administrator General, it would be best to tell them
the name of the person who bought the property and to have your documents
ready, since they may require additional information.

By the way, There is no estate (legacies) tax in Israel.

Rony Golan
Ramat Hasharon, Israel

Subject: Re: Land purchase records in Israel in the 1930s
From: "Mathilde Tagger" <tagger@actcom.co.il>
Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 14:40:08 +0200
X-Message-Number: 19

Hi Shoshana,
You wrote:
Members of my family purchased land in Israel in the 1930s. The purchases
were done >from the States.
I'm not interested in the land (back taxes < g >) but I'm interested in the
information available in the documents.Is there any way to track these
documents?
-------->
With a simple search on Google for the Israeli Ministry of Justice at:
http://www.justice.gov.il/mojHeb/ , I got the email of a person in charge at
the cadastre (land register) which is: ilanag@justice.gov.il .
You can also call the department of legacies (veaadat haezvonot) or first
read the details at: http://www.justice.gov.il/MOJHeb/VaadatEzvonot/.

A part of the website of the Ministry of Justice is in English but the
Cadastre and the Department of Legacies are not included.

Good luck,

Mathilde Tagger
Jerusalem