Merhavia ( he, מֶרְחַבְיָה, lit. "Space of God") is a

moshav A moshav ( he, מוֹשָׁב, plural ', lit. ''settlement, village'') is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 an ...

in northern

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. It falls under the jurisdiction of

Jezreel Valley Regional Council Jezreel Valley Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית עמק יזרעאל, ''Mo'atza Azorit Emek Yizra'el'') is a regional council in northern Israel that encompasses most of the settlements in the Jezreel Valley. It includes 15 kibbutzim, ...

and in had a population of . Founded in 1911, it was the first modern

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

ish settlement in the

Jezreel Valley The Jezreel Valley (from the he, עמק יזרעאל, translit. ''ʿĒmeq Yīzrəʿēʿl''), or Marj Ibn Amir ( ar, مرج ابن عامر), also known as the Valley of Megiddo, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in the Northern Distr ...

Etymology

The name Merhavia is derived from the Book of

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

Out of my straits I called upon the LORD; He answered me with great enlargement.

In the metaphorical sense: "God set me free" - the experience of the Jews immigrating to the

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine (see also Isra ...

and achieving a new homeland without the straits of persecution.

History

Co-operative

The village was established as the Co-operative in Merhavia, a

co-operative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

farm, at the beginning of 1911, based on the ideas of

Franz Oppenheimer Franz Oppenheimer (March 30, 1864 – September 30, 1943) was a German Jewish sociologist and political economist, who published also in the area of the fundamental sociology of the state. Life and career After studying medicine in Freiburg and ...

. The founders had arrived in the area in 1910 and consisted of members of ''

Kvutza Kvutza, kevutza or kevutzah ( "group") is a communal settlement among Jews, primarily in pre-state Israel, the word was used in reference to communal life. First there were ''kvutzot'' (plural of kvutza) in the sense of groups of young people with ...

t Kibush'' and workers of the

Second Aliyah The Second Aliyah ( he, העלייה השנייה, ''HaAliyah HaShniya'') was an aliyah (Jewish emigration to Palestine) that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 35,000 Jews immigrated into Ottoman-ruled Palestine, mos ...

. It was supposed to operate as a

farm with differential wages, and was founded with the assistance of

Arthur Ruppin Arthur Ruppin (1 March 1876 – 1 January 1943) was a German Zionist proponent of pseudoscientific race theory and one of the founders of the city of Tel Aviv.Todd Samuel Presner, ’German Jewish Studies in the Digital Age:Remarks on Discipline ...

Yehoshua Hankin Yehoshua Hankin ( he, יהושע חנקין, 1864 – 11 November 1945) was a Zionist activist who was responsible for most of the major land purchases of the Zionist Organization in Ottoman Palestine and Mandatory Palestine – in particular f ...

, the

Anglo-Palestine Bank Bank Leumi ( he, בנק לאומי, lit. ''National Bank''; ar, بنك لئومي) is an Israeli bank. It was founded on February 27, 1902, in Jaffa as the ''Anglo Palestine Company'' as subsidiary of the Jewish Colonial Trust (Jüdische Kolonia ...

and Eliyahu Blumenfeld.

Alexander Baerwald Alexander Baerwald (1877–1930) was a German Jewish architect best known for his work in Haifa, today in Israel, during History of Palestine#Ottoman period, Late Ottoman and Mandate Palestine, British rule. Life and career Baerwald was born i ...

designed and built the first solid buildings and the road net with a central square in 1915. Myra Warhaftig ( he, מירה ווארהפטיג), "Alex Baerwald", in: id., ''Sie legten den Grundstein. Leben und Wirken deutschsprachiger jüdischer Architekten in Palästina 1918-1948'', Berlin and Tübingen: Wasmuth, 1996, pp. 34-41, here p. 35.

Moshav

In 1922 it was converted to a moshav ovdim after being joined by

Polish-Jewish The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lon ...

immigrants and residents of

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

who wanted to work in agriculture. According to a

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

conducted in the same year by the British Mandate authorities, the settlement had a population of 135 Jews. In 1929 a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

, also by the name of Merhavia, was established next to the moshav.

Gallery

File:מרחביה - פועלי מרחביה-JNF020890.jpeg, Merhavia founders 1910 File:מרחביה - הצריף הראשון במרחביה-JNF023686.jpeg, Merhavia first building 1911 File:מרחביה - חברי השומר-JNF023708.jpeg, Merhavia members of Hashomer 1915 File:מרחביה - חברי הקבוצה-JNF023705.jpeg, Merhavia residents 1920 File:מרחביה - גבעת מרחביה בראשיתה-JNF033891.jpeg, Merhavia 1921 File:מרחביה - מראה-JNF033773.jpeg, Merhavia 1929 File:מרחביה - מראה כללי.-JNF045027.jpeg, Merhavia 1941 File:מרחביה - מושב מרחביה, באופק גבעת המורה-JNF033785.jpeg, Moshav Merhavia 1947

Notable residents

* Henry Einspruch (1892–1977), a Galician-born Jew who converted to Lutheranism, becoming a Messianic missionary affiliated with the Hebrew Christian movement, best known for translating the Christian New Testament into Yiddish.

References

External links

{{authority control Moshavim Populated places established in 1911 1911 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Populated places in Northern District (Israel) Polish-Jewish culture in Israel