Ein Harod ( he, עֵין חֲרוֹד) was a
kibbutz in northern Israel near
Mount Gilboa
Mount Gilboa ( he, הַר הַגִּלְבֹּעַ, translit=Har hagGīlbōaʿ ; ar, جبل جلبوع ''Jabal Jarbūʿ'' or ''Jabal Fuqqāʿa''), sometimes referred to as the Mountains of Gilboa, is the name for a mountain range in Israel. It ...
. Founded in 1921, it became the center of
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
's kibbutz movement, hosting the headquarters of the largest kibbutz organisation,
HaKibbutz HaMeuhad.
In 1923 part of the community split off into
Tel Yosef, and in 1952 the rest of the community split into
Ein Harod (Ihud) and
Ein Harod (Meuhad).
It was named after the nearby
spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season)
Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...
then known in Arabic as Ain Jalut, "Spring of Goliath",
Hebraized as "Ein Harod", now
Ma'ayan Harod
Ma'ayan Harod ( he, מעיין חרוד, lit=the Spring of Harod) or Ayn Jalut ( ar, عين جالوت ', lit. "the Spring of Goliath", formerly also and in Hebrew) is a spring on the southern border of the Jezreel Valley, and the location of ...
. It was built on land formerly belonging to the villages of
Qumya
Qumya ( ar, قوميه), was a Palestinian village of 510 inhabitants when it was depopulated prior to the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Located 12.5 kilometers north of Baysan, the village was assaulted by the forces of the Golani Brigade on 26 March ...
and
Tamra
Tamra ( ar, طمرة, he, טַמְרָה or ) is an Arab city in the North District of Israel located in the Lower Galilee north of the city of Shefa-Amr and approximately east of Acre. In it had a population of .
History
Tamra is an ancient ...
.
History
Middle Ages
The original kibbutz was located near the 1260
battlefield of Ayn Jalut, a battle in which the
Mongols
The Mongols ( mn, Монголчууд, , , ; ; russian: Монголы) are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, Inner Mongolia in China and the Buryatia Republic of the Russian Federation. The Mongols are the principal membe ...
suffered their first defeat at the hands of the
Mamluks, which arguably saved the Mamluk sultanate from annihilation.
The kibbutz's first location
The kibbutz was founded in 1921 by Russian Jewish pioneers of the
Third Aliyah
The Third Aliyah ( he, העלייה השלישית, ''HaAliyah HaShlishit'') refers to the third wave—or aliyah—of modern Jewish immigration to Palestine from Europe. This wave lasted from 1919, just after the end of World War I, until 19 ...
.
In 1921, members of the
Gdud HaAvoda "Work Battalion", at a time when their road work was decreasing, set up a work camp in the
Harod Valley
The Harod Valley ( he, עמק חרוד, Emek Harod) is a valley in the Northern District of Israel. It is the eastern part of the Jezreel Valley,a transitional zone that extends to the Beit She'an Valley. From south it locked by Mount Gilboa and ...
, the eastern extension of 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 ...
, at the foot of
Mount Gilboa
Mount Gilboa ( he, הַר הַגִּלְבֹּעַ, translit=Har hagGīlbōaʿ ; ar, جبل جلبوع ''Jabal Jarbūʿ'' or ''Jabal Fuqqāʿa''), sometimes referred to as the Mountains of Gilboa, is the name for a mountain range in Israel. It ...
.
[ "Tel Yosef", Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2008](_blank)
The Gale Group, via Jewish Virtual Library
The Gale Group, via Jewish Virtual Library In 1921, 35 young people from the Gdud pitched tents at the
Harod Spring
Ma'ayan Harod ( he, מעיין חרוד, lit=the Spring of Harod) or Ayn Jalut ( ar, عين جالوت ', lit. "the Spring of Goliath", formerly also and in Hebrew) is a spring on the southern border of the Jezreel Valley, and the location o ...
.
[Ein Harod Meuchad](_blank)
Gems in Israel, February 2004 The group, led by
Shlomo Levkovitch (Lavi), began to farm land which the
Palestine Land Development Company
Israel Land Development Company (ILDC) ( he, הכשרת הישוב, Hachsharat HaYishuv) is one of Israel's largest conglomerates, with fields including real estate, construction, energy and hotels. It was acquired in 1987 by Yaakov Nimrodi.
Hist ...
had purchased from the Arab village of
Nuris
Nuris ( ar, نورِِِس) was a Palestinian Arab village in the District of Jenin. In 1945, Nuris had 570 inhabitants. It was depopulated during the 1948 War on 29 May 1948 under Operation Gideon.Morris, 2004, p.346/ref> The Israeli moshav o ...
, in the eastern part of the Jezreel Valley. The Gdud members worked here at draining the swamps, a permanent source of
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. S ...
.
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 in ...
conducted in 1922 by the
British Mandate authorities, Ein Harod had a population of 244 Jews.
The
Tel Yosef-Ein Harod group split in July 1923 over differences concerning economic autonomy, with two-thirds of the group settling Tel Yosef and the rest, Ein Harod.
While it's sometimes considered that Ein Ḥarod was founded in 1921 and Tel Yosef in 1923, together they formed one farming unit.
File:עין חרוד - בחצר-JNF043387.jpeg, Ein Harod 1925
File:עין חרוד - תחנת הרכבת.-JNF043042.jpeg, Ein Harod railway station 1925
File:חגיגת ביכורים בעין חרוד-JNF007707.jpeg, Kibbutz Ein Harod 1926
File:עין חרוד - הכרמים.-JNF044166.jpeg, Ein Harod 1930
File:עין חרוד - תעשית מכונות משורינות בבתי המלאכה-JNF018627.jpeg, Ein Harod constructing armoured vehicles 1938
File:עין חרוד - מראה כללי-JNF007732.jpeg, Ein Harod 1945
File:Ein Harod.jpg, Kibbutz Ein Harod, 1949
Leadership of Kibbutz movement
In 1924, the Ein Harod group was joined by members of the Havurat HaEmek group. In 1925, under the leadership of
Yitzhak Tabenkin
Yitzhak Tabenkin ( he, יצחק טבנקין, 8 January 1888 – 6 June 1971) was a Zionist activist and Israeli politician. He was one of the founders of the kibbutz Movement.
Biography
Yitzchak Tabenkin was born in Babruysk in the Russian Emp ...
, Ein Harod became the center of countrywide kibbutz movement joined by members of
Yagur
Yagur ( he, יָגוּר) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located on the northeastern slopes of Mount Carmel, about 9 km southeast of Haifa, it falls under the jurisdiction of Zevulun Regional Council. In it had a population of , making it ...
,
Ashdot Yaakov
Ashdot Ya'akov ( he, אַשְׁדוֹת יַעֲקֹב, lit. ''Ya'akov Rapids'') is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Originally founded in 1924 by a kvutza of Hashomer members from Latvia on the land which is today Gesher, it moved to its current ...
and
Ayelet HaShahar
Ayelet HaShahar ( he, אַיֶּלֶת הַשַּׁחַר) is a kibbutz in northern Israel acquired in 1892 and settled in the second Aliyah, located on the Korazim Plateau, by the Rosh Pina – Metulla road, it is approximately south of Kiryat S ...
, forming the basis of
HaKibbutz HaMeuhad.
Ein Harod became the organizational headquarters of the movement.
In 1926, during a breakup of the Gdud HaAvoda along ideological faultlines separating the Marxists from the more moderate leftists, Ein Harod and Tel Yosef ceased their close cooperation.
Permanent location
In 1930, when the collective moved to a permanent location at the foot of Kumi Hill, the kibbutz had 239 members.
The village played an important role in the defence of the area during the
1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, known by the Jews of the era as "the disturbances," during which it was the base of
Orde Wingate's Special Night Squads
The Special Night Squads (SNS) (Hebrew: ''Plagot Ha'Layla Ha'Meyukhadot'', פלוגות הלילה המיוחדות) was a joint British-Jewish counter-insurgency military unit, established by Captain Orde Wingate in Mandatory Palestine in 1938 ...
.
In 1945 the
Haganah had a small prison there in which they detained members of the
Irgun
Irgun • Etzel
, image = Irgun.svg , image_size = 200px
, caption = Irgun emblem. The map shows both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan, which the Irgun claimed in its entirety for a future Jewish state. The acronym "Etzel" i ...
during the
Season
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...
.
However, on 29 June 1946, as part of
Operation Agatha
Operation Agatha (Saturday, June 29, 1946), sometimes called Black Sabbath ( he, השבת השחורה) or Black Saturday because it began on the Jewish sabbath, was a police and military operation conducted by the British authorities in Mandato ...
, the
British army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
occupied the kibbutz by force.
By 1947 it had a population of 1,120.
Ideological split
In 1952, in the wake of ideological differences between supporters of the two main
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
parties,
Mapai
Mapai ( he, מַפָּא"י, an acronym for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', lit. "Workers' Party of the Land of Israel") was a democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger in ...
and
Mapam, the kibbutz split, creating two separate kibbutzim:
Ein Harod (Ihud), affiliated with
Mapai
Mapai ( he, מַפָּא"י, an acronym for , ''Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael'', lit. "Workers' Party of the Land of Israel") was a democratic socialist political party in Israel, and was the dominant force in Israeli politics until its merger in ...
and belonging to
Ihud HaKvutzot veHaKibbutzim
The Kibbutz Movement ( he, התנועה הקיבוצית, ''HaTnu'a HaKibbutzit'') is the largest settlement movement for kibbutzim in Israel. It was formed in 1999 by a partial merger of the United Kibbutz Movement and Kibbutz Artzi and is made ...
; and
Ein Harod (Meuhad), affiliated with
Mapam and belonging to
HaKibbutz HaMeuhad. Today both kibbutzim belong to the
United Kibbutz Movement
The Kibbutz Movement ( he, התנועה הקיבוצית, ''HaTnu'a HaKibbutzit'') is the largest settlement movement for kibbutzim in Israel. It was formed in 1999 by a partial merger of the United Kibbutz Movement and Kibbutz Artzi and is made ...
.
Museums
Mishkan Museum of Art
Mishkan Museum of Art (Mishkan LeOmanut, he, המשכן לאמנות על שם חיים אתר, Haim Atar Art House) is an Israeli art museum located on the grounds of Kibbutz Ein Harod Meuhad.
History
Mishkan LeOmanut was the first rural muse ...
(full name: Ein Harod Art Museum) is one of the first art museums in Israel. The museum was founded in 1937 as an "art corner" during the early years of the kibbutz in the belief that culture and art were among the essential components of a society. The artworks were initially displayed in the art studio owned by Haim Atar, a small wooden hut. A new, imposing, museum building, designed by an architect , was inaugurated in 1948.
About Ein Harod Museum of Art
/ref> During construction of the museum, the 1952 Mapai/Mapam split happened, but the museum was preserved as the joint institution for the split kibbuzim. The museum was declared as a "heritage site" by the .
houses a collection of archaeology and artifacts related to local history of the area.
Notable people
*Yosef Alon
Yosef (Joe) Alon (Hebrew: יוסף (ג'ו) אלון), born Josef Plaček, also known as Joe Alon (July 25, 1929July 1, 1973), was an Israeli Air Force officer and military attache to the U.S. who was mysteriously shot and killed in the driveway o ...
* Meir Har-Zion (1934–2014), military commando
*Shlomo Lavi
Shlomo Lavi ( he, שלמה לביא, born Shlomo Levkovich in 1882, died 23 July 1963) was a Zionist activist and politician.
Early life
Born in Plonsk in the Russian Empire (today in Poland), Lavi received a religious education. While growing ...
, founding member; Zionist activist and politician, originator of the larger kibbutz settlement form
*Avraham Shlonsky
Avraham Shlonsky (March 6, 1900 – May 18, 1973; he, אברהם שלונסקי; russian: Авраам Шлёнский) was a significant and dynamic Israeli poet and editor born in the Russian Empire.
He was influential in the development of ...
(1900–1973), founding member; Hebrew literary stylist, author, translator and editor
*Yitzhak Tabenkin
Yitzhak Tabenkin ( he, יצחק טבנקין, 8 January 1888 – 6 June 1971) was a Zionist activist and Israeli politician. He was one of the founders of the kibbutz Movement.
Biography
Yitzchak Tabenkin was born in Babruysk in the Russian Emp ...
(1888–1971), founding member; Zionist activist and politician, co-founder of the Kibbutz Movement
* Aharon Zisling
* (1902-1953), painter, one of the founders of Ein Harod
* Aviva Rabinovich-Vin (אביבה רבינוביץ'-וין), professor of botany, chief scientist at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and an environmental activist, was born here
See also
*Israeli art
Visual arts in Israel refers to plastic art created first in the region of Palestine, from the later part of the 19th century until 1948 and subsequently in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories by Israeli artists. Visual art in Israel ...
References
External links
Museum of Art Ein Harod
Beit Shturman
Ein Harod, ''circa'' 1921
Ein Harod, ''circa'' 1925
Railway station near Ein Harod, ''circa'' 1929
{{Authority control
Gilboa Regional Council
Populated places established in 1921
Populated places established in 1930
Jewish villages in Mandatory Palestine
1921 establishments in Mandatory Palestine
1930 establishments in Mandatory Palestine