Degania, Israel, courtesy, Pinterest |
In June 1912, the group moved from the mud huts and wooden shack of Umm Juni to the new stone-built compound at its permanent location where the Jordan River meets the Sea of Galilee.
The
poetess Rachel Bluwstein and paramilitary commander Joseph
Trumpeldor were among those who worked in Degania. Zionist
pioneer and future Israeli politician Yosef Baratz,
among the founders of Degania, married and started the kibbutz’s first family.
His first child, Gideon Baratz (1913-1988), was born there, becoming the first
child born in a kibbutz. The second native-born child was the future general
and politician Moshe Dayan. Dayan was named after Moshe Barsky, a member of Degania who, in
1913, was the first kibbutz member killed in an Arab attack.
After
World War I, Degania's intensified farming created a need for more hands and
the third wave of Jewish pioneers arriving in the country, the Third Aliyah,
was a major source. But preferring to maintain the frame of the small
"family" kevutzah, in 1920, the settlers ceded part of the land for a
new kibbutz but as an extension of the existing one. It was founded mainly by
veterans of the Second Aliyah led by kibbutz pioneer and leader Levi Brevda,
later known as Levi ben Amitai, and Levi Eshkol, future prime minister of
Israel. It was called “Degania Bet”, the original kibbutz
being renamed “Degania Aleph”. It was the first planned kibbutz and was
designed and built by the German Jewish architect Fritz Kornberg. Degania
Gimel was established soon after, later becoming Kibbutz Bet Zera.
During the Arab riots
of 1920, the Deganias were attacked
and Degania Bet was abandoned for several months. Reconstruction was swift however
and the settlements further intensified their farming
techniques. In time, they recognized the need, both economic and social, to
absorb more members, but even so, in 1932, they were able to give part of their
land for a third settlement, Afikim.
During the Arab riots of 1936–39, Degania Bet served
as a base for establishing “tower and stockade” settlements
as a means of protecting Jewish lives throughout the country. During the War of
Independence in 1948, the kibbutz served as a training center for soldiers of
the Yiftach Brigade from the Upper Galileean village of Kfar Blum. In the
meantime, in a bid to conquer the Jordan Valley, the nearby villages of Shaar haGolan and Masada were attacked by the Arab army of Arab-occupied Syria and the
village of Zemah, fell. On May 20,
1948, during the Battles
of the Kinarot Valley,
in one of the first battles of the war, the residents of Degania Alef and
Bet, assisted by a small number of military personnel, repelled a Syrian Arab
attack and succeeded in halting the advance of the Syrian Arabs into the Jordan Valley. After
the battle, one of the Syrian tanks remained
stuck in the settlement's perimeter; it remained there as a memorial and Defenders’
Park, Gan haMeginim, was established
in memory of Degania’s fallen members.
In addition to its 350 cow
dairy herd, crop fields, almond orchards, banana, date and avocado plantations,
Degania Bet industrialized in the 1960s with Degania Sprayers, now a green industry; in 1984 it opened the Degania Silicone factory. An additional
source of income is its kibbutz cottage
tourist accommodation, and it specializes in organized bicycle tours. Deganyah Alef has operated the Toolgal industrial diamond plant since the early 1970s.
In 1981, Degania
Alef was awarded the Israel Prize, for its special contribution to
society and the State in social pioneering.
In 2007, in
a sign of the times, Degania Alef moved to undergo privatization. The
local economy was now more capitalistic but still offers a form of a social
"safety net" supplement for members whose livelihood is inadequate to
meet their expenses.
The Bet Gordon Museum and Study
Center for natural sciences and agriculture is located at Degania Alef. Arthur
Ruppin, botanist
Otto
Warburg, journalist Leopold
Greenberg, and other personalities are buried at Degania Alef,
alongside Aaron David Gordon, Joseph
Busel, and other founders of the labor settlement movement.
No comments:
Post a Comment