A Kinneret colony celebrates 100 years

[Mediocrates]

Kinneret colony celebrates 100th anniversary

Zionist-settlement enterprise launched near Jordan River's point of departure from Sea of Galilee after agronomist Kalvarisky purchases lands in area. Ynet presents four-part series documenting lives of first families that settled in village

One hundred years ago, the Zionist-settlement enterprise was launched near the place where the Jordan River leaves the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret).
At the beginning of the 20th century, agronomist Haim Margaliot Kalvarisky, who was in charge of founding the Galilee colonies on behalf of the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA), purchased lands in the Yavne'el Valley, where the colony of Yavne'el was later founded.
In 1904, Kalvarisky encountered an opportunity to purchase the lands of Delaika (where the Kinneret Farm was later built).
He put a down payment for more than 12,000 dunam (2,965 acres) in the area, and when he asked the JCA to accept the land, its members refused, claiming that he did not consult them before striking the deal.
Kalvarisky then turned to Arthur Ruppin, who headed the Palestine Bureau (also known as "Eretz Yisrael Office") of the World Zionist Organization, and Ruppin recruited Zionist men of means to help buy the land.
In 1908, following a recommendation by agronomist Berman, the Kinneret Farm was built in the area. The Israel Land Development Co. (ILDC) and its emissary Arthur Ruppin planned to have this facility train the pioneers arriving in Israel to establish farms.
North of the Kinneret Farm, the JCA purchased a strip of land for the establishment of the Kinneret colony, which would include eight peasant courts.
This week we launch a series of four articles featuring the story of the first families who settled in the area and live there to this day.

The photos are documented in the houses of the pioneers and in the colony's museum.
We would like to thank Mulik (Shmuel) Yizraeli, whose family was one of the founders and who treasures the days of the colony in his memories.


1. A photographed postcard of Ben-Dov: The Jordan River's point of departure from Lake Kinneret at the beginning of the 20th century, when the land purchase began. Delaika, a wild Bedouin tribe, forcibly controlled the area through robbery and murder. Passing by unprotected was dangerous.


2. A photographed postcard of Ben-Dov from the foundation of the Kinneret colony: The pioneers who arrived at the Kinneret Farm are seen hard at work. The large two-story building on the left is in the yard of Kinneret Farm. On the back and right you can see the peasants' houses built by the JCA for the Kinneret farmers. The large house on the right is the Treidel home.

The three Treidel brothers were Yoop, Alfred and Oscar. Yoop, the oldest one, studied agricultural engineering in Germany and arrived in the Land of Israel in 1898. He and Ephraim Krause (the brother of Eliyahu Krause, the manager of the Sajera farm and Mikveh Israel), founded a technical office together the ILDC, and the JCA hired their office's measurement and supervision services.

Alfred, the second brother, studied agronomy and sent the funds he received as wedding presents to his brother Yoop in the Land of Israel, asking that he purchase land for him. Yup, who was busy measuring land for the Kinneret colony at the time, purchased and built the house seen in the photo. Part of the house was a hotel for dignitaries who arrived at the area (Baron Rothschild would also stay at the place during his visits).

On important detail seen in the picture is the Jordan's River's point of departure from Lake Kinneret, which at the time was located between the Kinneret Farm hill and Tel Bet Yerah (Khirbet Kerak). The riverbed was clogged and the river's departure point moved south to where it is today.


3. A photographed postcard of Ben-Dov from the foundation of the Kinneret colony: The photo was taken from the mountain west of the colony. The village of Tzemach is seen in the distance, beyond Lake Kinneret. On the right, near the lake, is the Kinneret Farm. In the front is the only street, filled with the houses of the colony's farmers.

The tall building on the right is the clinic. The first person to live there was medical assistant Naomi Shapira, who was replaced in 1911 by Yaakov Hefetz. A year later, a two story-building was built on the other side of the road, serving as a kindergarten and school for the colony's children.


4. A postcard from Ben-Dov: "Cucumber field in Kinneret" (each plant is raised inside a box)


5. Yaakov Hefetz at the Kinneret clinic

Yaakov Hefetz was born in 1887 in the town of Pochep in Ukraine, where he also studied pharmaceutics. He immigrated to Israel in 1908 and began working at the orchard of his friend Ginsin in Petah Tikva. In 1911 he arrived at Kinnert to replace medical assistant Naomi Shapira. He married Pua Lis, who was at the Alamot Farm in Kinneret.

Hefetz was a medical assistant in his profession, but during his years in Kinneret he was in fact the doctor of the colony and the surrounding communities. In those first years, the common diseases were malaria, cholera and typhus. The lives of many of the residents were saved thanks to Yaakov's activity.

Pua and Yaakov's children were Nehama, Ziva, Ruthy, Nitza and Yitzhak. Yaakov died in 1978 at the age of 91, and Pua passed away in 1981 at the age of 88.


6. 1934, The Hefetz family on the backdrop of the clinic. From the right: Ziva, Nehama, Nitza, Pua, Yitzhak and Yaakov


7. Transportation improved – from a donkey to a motorcycle with a sidecar. In the photo: The family on the motorcycle


8. Near the Hefetz house, summer of 1925. From the right: Ziva, Ruthy and Nehama


9. Nehama Hefetz washes Yitzhak, 1933


10. Yoav Halevy and Ziva Hefetz near the school building, 1930s


11. The first peasants' house near the clinic was the Halevy home. In the photo: Nahum Levin (Halevy) with his mother Rachel

Nahum (Levin) Levy immigrated to the Land of Israel from Ukraine in 1906. He worked in different places: Stein's casting factory in Jaffa, the Rishon Lezion winery, the farm of Yaakov Shertok (Moshe Sharet's father) in Ein Sinia near Jerusalem, with a group of builders in Jerusalem, in Gdera and in Zichron Yaacov.

He eventually arrived at the Mitzpe colony, where he married Miriam Glikin in 1912. Nahum and Miriam sought to move from Mitzpe to Kinneret, and their wish came true only after Yosef Tseitlin's farm was made available.

Their daughter Drora was born in March 1913, and was the first baby girl of the Kinneret colony. Their other children were Yova, Amihai and Tuvia. Amihai was killed at the age of 20 in November 1941 in an ambush placed by Arab murderers to a group of the colony's residents who were on their way to Tiberias. Miriam passed away in 1951 and Nahum in 1963.



12. On the right: Nahum Halevy


13. Tzipora and Yoav Halevy, 1940


14. Amihai Halevy

The family members appearing in these articles and their friends are invited to add information through the talkback feature.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...610005,00.html

[NewsGuy]

I really enjoy seeing old pictures like that. Amazing to think about the day-to-day lives of those people and compare them to our lives these days.

[Mediocrates]

Kinneret colony celebrates 100th anniversary – part 2

Zionist-settlement enterprise launched near Jordan River's point of departure from Sea of Galilee. Second part of series documents lives of Cohen, Avramson families
Nadav Man

Last week we published the first part of a series of four articles dedicated to the Kinneret colony, which was established exactly 100 years ago.
The Zionist-settlement enterprise was launched near the place where the Jordan River leaves the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret).

At the beginning of the 20th century, agronomist Haim Margaliot Kalvarisky, who was in charge of founding the Galilee colonies on behalf of the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA), purchased lands in the Yavne'el Valley, where the colony of Yavne'el was later founded.
In 1904, Kalvarisky encountered an opportunity to purchase the lands of Delaika (where the Kinneret Farm was later built).
He put a down payment for more than 12,000 dunam (2,965 acres) in the area, and when he asked the JCA to accept the land, its members refused, claiming that he did not consult them before striking the deal.

Kalvarisky then turned to Arthur Ruppin, who headed the Palestine Bureau (also known as "Eretz Yisrael Office") of the World Zionist Organization, and Ruppin recruited Zionist men of means to help buy the land.
In 1908, following a recommendation by agronomist Berman, the Kinneret Farm was built in the area. The Israel Land Development Co. (ILDC) and its emissary Arthur Ruppin planned to have this facility train the pioneers arriving in Israel to establish farms.
North of the Kinneret Farm, the JCA purchased a strip of land for the establishment of the Kinneret colony, which would include eight peasant courts.

This series of four articles features the story of the first families who settled in the area and live there to this day. The photos are documented in the houses of the pioneers and in the colony's museum.

We would like to thank Mulik (Shmuel) Yizraeli, whose family was one of the founders and who treasures the days of the colony in his memories.

The neighbors of the Halevy family from last week's article were the family of Yitzhak and Leah Cohen. The couple was married in 1913. Yitzhak Cohen was born in Irkutsk in 1891. His father had a mill and his brother Zvi worked in the gold mines of the Novomesky family (Moshe Novomesky later founded the potash factories around the Dead Sea).

In 1909, Yitzhak immigrated to Israel on a boat from Odessa, accompanied by a number of friends. At first they worked in different places in Israel, until in 1913 Cohen received the Kinneret farm of Eliyahu Mizrahi (Ephraim Krause's brother-in-law) from the JCA.

Yitzhak met Hannah Maizel, who managed the Alamot Farm in Kinneret, and asked her to find a girl who would help him with his housework. The girl was Leah, the daughter of Moshe and Maria Lifshitz from Yavne'el. They were married shortly afterwards.

In 1925, Yitzhak's father Israel and brother Zvi immigrated to Israel. Zvi and his partners from Tiberias built a flour mill in Tzemach, which was torched by Arab rioters during the 1936 events.
Yitzhak and Leah Cohen had six children: Moshe, Shulamit, Hannah, Lina and twins Uri and Aryeh. Yitzhak was killed in a road accident in 1973, and Leah passed away a year later.


1. 1910, Yitzhak Cohen and his friends en route to the Land of Israel

2. The Cohen family's children in 1924. From the right: Hannah, Moshe, Lina and Shulamit

3. 1928. From the right, counterclockwise: Aryeh, Shulamit, Hannah, Lina, Moshe and Uri

4. Twins Uri and Aryeh (L) in a photo from the 1930s

5. 1919, outside the Kinnert colony school: Kindergarten teacher Ahuva Brenner (the sister of author Yosef Haim Brenner), Moshe Cohen (second from the right), Drora Levy (fourth from the right), Yemina Yizraeli (seventh from the right). The rest of the children in the picture are either Kinneret residents or refugees from Tel Aviv-Jaffa.

6. 1930, the first children of Kinneret. From the right: Moshe Cohen, Drora Halevy, Aharon Rahamim, Yemina Yizraeli, Yoram Kavshana, Nehama Hefetz

7. Moshe Cohen, the colony's eldest child, in a photo from 1934, with his wife Hinda from the Betelem Nahal group (Ein Gev) and sons Amnon and Giora.
Cohen joined the Haganah and Palmach, and was known to be very courageous as a commander. During the battle for the illegal immigration, he took part in bringing the immigrants to the Land of Israel. When the Syrians invaded the Jordan Valley on April 18, 1948, he and his department fought as part of the Tzemach police. After the police were overthrown, he fought in Kibbutz Degania Bet, where he was killed on April 20, 1948.

8. Shulamit and Hannah in rubber pants in the 1930s


9. Hannah and Lina Cohen, 1940

10. Hannah and Lina on the shores of Lake Kinneret, 1938

11. Hannah and Zvi Gesher, 1947

12. The Cohen family home, 1943. In the photo: Lina and Yitzhak Cohen with Giora, Moshe's son

13. Near the Cohen family home is the house of Yosef and Rachel Avramson. Azaria Shaulov, a Circassian, lived in the house at first but left after the construction of Kinneret's houses were completed, and his farm was turned over to Yosef Avramson.
The couple's children were: Mina, Metania, Ginosara, Dudu and Amnon. Yosef died in 1969, and Rachel in 1972.

14. At the entrance to the Avramson home in 1937. Sitting, from the right: Ginosara, Dudu and Amnon. Standing: Mina, Metania, Rachel, Yosef, Shabtai

15. Shabtai Avramson plowing on the backdrop of the Kinneret colony, 1956
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...613163,00.html

[Mediocrates]

Kinneret colony celebrates 100th anniversary – part 3

Zionist-settlement enterprise launched near Jordan River's point of departure from Sea of Galilee 100 years ago. Third part of series documents lives of Yizraeli, Kavshana and Shneidman families Nadav Man Published: 10.31.08, 14:20 / Israel Travel

Last week and two weeks ago we published the first two parts of a series of four articles dedicated to the Kinneret colony, which was established exactly 100 years ago.

The Zionist-settlement enterprise was launched near the place where the Jordan River leaves the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret).

This series of four articles features the story of the first families who settled in the area and live there to this day. The photos are documented in the houses of the pioneers and in the colony's museum.

We would like to thank Mulik (Shmuel) Yizraeli, whose family was one of the founders and who treasures the days of the colony in his memories.

The Yizraeli family

David Rubin Yizraeli was born in 1886 in the city of Yekaterinoslav, on the banks of the Dnieper River, to a Jewish family related to Rabbi Kook and the Baal Shem Tov.

David was a Zionist activist from his youth, and in 1905 he headed a group of pioneers who immigrated to the Land of Israel. The group members arrived in Jaffa, continued to Haifa and took a train to Melahamia (Menahamia). There they were "adopted" by teachers Zvi Shaam and Hannah Baalul.

Hannah was the first female teacher in the Galilee, starting in 1903 when she taught in Kfar Tavor together with teacher Yossi Vitkin. In the barns of the Melahamia colony, a love affair began between David Rubin Azrieli and teacher Hannah Baalul.

David worked in Melahamia for two years. Because he was an outstanding worker, he was recruited by Manya Shochat to run the operations at the cooperative enterprise she founded in the colony of Sajera.

When David moved to Sajera, Hannah worked as a Hebrew teacher with Jewish children in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv. She taught at a school established by her cousin for three years before returning to Israel.

In 1909, David received a farm in the Kinneret colony from Jewish Colonization Association (JCA). Hannah returned to Israel and the two were married. Hannah and David took part in the colony's public activities for many years. David served as chairman of the colony's committee and Hannah managed the local schools. They had four children – Yemina, Emanuel, Shulamit and Shmuel.

After defeating the Syrians in the Jordan Valley battle during the War of Independence, David discovered his hidden musical talent. He began composing musical creations, many of which were played on Israel Radio. David Yizraeli died in 1965, and his wife Hannah in 1982.



1. The Rubin family, David Yizraeli's family, in the city of Yekaterinoslav (Dnipropetrovsk). David himself is not seen in the photo. 1 – Israel, David's brother; 2 – brother Shmuel; 3 – sister Hodel; 4 – Hodel's son; 5 – David's mother, Malka of the Haneles family (related to the Baal Shem Tov); 6 – young sister Paulina (who later married Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and was a member of the politburo until foreign relations were estbalishedwith the State of Israel in 1949); 7 – brother Avaraham; 9 – David's uncle; 8 – uncle's wife


2. From the right: Hannah Baalul of the Anwi family (Yizraeli) and her sister Esther in Jaffa, 1903


3. Hannah Baalul and her friend (L) as teachers in the Hebrew school in Plovdiv, the second largest Bulgarian city, 1909.


4. At the Yizraeli home, Kinneret, 1923. 1 – Emanuel, 2 – David, 3 – Esther, Hannah's sister, 4 – Shmuel, 5 – Shlomit, 6 – Esther's son, 7 – Hannah, 8 – Yemina, the firstborn daughter


5. The children of the Kinneret colony in 1929: 1 – Amihai Halevy, 2 – Hannah Cohen, 3 – Shulamit Cohen, 4 – Emanuel Yizraeli, 5 – Yoav Halevy, 6 – Metania Avramson, 7 – Hezy Yatom, 8 – Yoram Kavshana, 9 – Eliezer Sheinker, 10 – Yemina Yizraeli, 11 – Nehama Hefetz, 12 – Avner Kavshana, 13 – Mordechai Rahamim


6. With teacher Yeshayahu Eshkol. Standing: Dina Koren, Shulamit Yizraeli, Pnina Sheinker, Lina Cohen. Sitting: Yehoshua Kavshana, Mulik. Yitzhak Koren. Linneret, 1935


7. A musician adapts David Yizraeli's works to an orchestration

The Kavshana family

Yitzhak Kavshana was born in the city of Polonsk in 1888. He studied in the "heder" (religious elementary school) with Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the two founded the Ezra organization in the city with a number of friends.


8. In the photo: Yitzhak with his brothers and sister. From the right: Yitzhak, David, Miriam (Avraham Yaffe's mother), Sara, Rachel (the mother), Yaakov


9. Petah Tikva, 1908. From the right: Sara Kavshana and Miriam (Kavshana) Yoffe, Moshe Leib. Sitting: Yitzhak Kavshana


10. David Ben-Gurion visits his childhood friend Yitzhak Kavshana, the 1950s


11. Yitzhak Kavshana in 1972

The Shneidman family



12. Photo from 1898: 1 – Yehuda Shneidman, 2 – his wife Leah, and their children (Avigdor standing on the right)


13. Bezalel and Yehuda Shneidman in their backyard, 1933


The family members appearing in these articles and their friends are invited to add information through the talkback feature.

[NewsGuy]

Those were from the days before they invented the concept of smiling in pictures.