Its responsibilities included education, culture, local government, welfare, healthcare, religious service, security and defense.
The organization represented almost all major Jewish factions, however a few smaller groups at first objected to the creation of centralized leadership.
[citation needed] It was announce only in 1946 that the Sephardic Jews and the Zionist Revisionists, would stop refusing to participate in the JNC.
[3][verification needed] The Political Department of the JNC was responsible for relations with the Arabs, ties with the Jewish Agency and negotiations with the British government.
As the yishuv grew, the JNC adopted more functions, such as education, health care and welfare services, internal defense and security matters, and organized recruitment to the British forces during World War II.