Givat Brenner ( he, גִּבְעַת בְּרֶנֶר, lit. ''Brenner Hill''; ar, غفعات برينر), is a kibbutz in the Central District of

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 ...

. Located around south of Rehovot, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Brenner Regional Council Brenner Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית ברנר, ''Mo'atza Azorit Brenner''; ar, المجلس الإقليمي برنر), is a regional council in the Central District of Israel. It is located in the westernmost portion of the She ...

. Founded in 1928, it is named after writer

Yosef Haim Brenner Yosef Haim Brenner ( he, יוֹסֵף חַיִּים בְּרֶנֶר, translit=Yosef Ḥayyim Brener; 11 September 1881 – 2 May 1921) was a Hebrew-language author from the Russian Empire, and one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew literature. Bi ...

, who was killed in the Jaffa riots of 1921. In it had a population of . It is the largest kibbutz in

History

Givat Brenner was founded in 1928 by

Enzo Sereni Enzo Sereni (17 April 190518 November 1944) was an Italian Socialist Zionist, co-founder of kibbutz Givat Brenner, celebrated intellectual, advocate of Jewish-Arab co-existence and a Jewish Brigade officer who was parachuted into Nazi-occupied ...

and a group of immigrants from Lithuania,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. That same year, pioneers had settled on some 200

dunams A dunam (Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount o ...

(49.4 acres) of land that had been purchased by

Moshe Smilansky Moshe Smilansky ( he, משה סמילנסקי; February 24, 1874 – October 6, 1953) was a pioneer of the First Aliyah, a Zionist leader who advocated peaceful coexistence with the Arabs in Mandatory Palestine, a farmer, and a prolific author ...

from the Arab landholders of

Aqir Aqir, also spelt Akir and Akkur, was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict, located 9 km southwest of Ramla and 1 km north of Wadi al-NasufiyyaKhalidi, 1990, p. 359 (today called Nahal Ekron). It was depopulated and demol ...

and

Zarnuqa Zarnuqa ( ar, زرنوقة), also Zarnuga,Reuter, 2004, pp956 was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict. It was depopulated on 27–28 May 1948 during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Location Zarnuqa was located 10 km southwest o ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Givat Brenner supplied products such as jam to 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 ...

, which laid the foundation for its export business. File:קיבוץ גבעת-ברנר בראשיתו-JNF022265.jpeg, Givat Brenner 1928 File:Flickr - Government Press Office (GPO) - Kibbutz Givat Brener.jpg, Kibbutz Givat Brenner, 1935 File:Givat Brenner factory.jpg, Food canning factory, Givat Brenner, 1939 File:El Ramle 1945.jpg, Givat Brenner 1945 1:250,000 File:Rehovot 1948.jpg, Givat Brenner 1:20,000 File:Giv'at Brenner.jpg, Members of Company H, Palmach, in Giv'at Brenner, 1945 The establishment of an irrigation equipment factory led to the creation of a

foundry A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

. The foundry evolved into a specialized aluminum die-casting company, which has produced, among other things, the housings for emergency phones along the New Jersey Turnpike. In 1938, it opened the first kibbutz sanatorium in the country.

Demographics

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 1931 by the British Mandate authorities, Givat Brenner had a population of 155 inhabitants and a total of 5 residential houses.Mills, 1932, p
20
/ref> In 1970 the population was 480.

Education

Givat Brenner Regional School serves the communities of the Brenner Regional Council. The offices of the Regional Council are also located in the Kibbutz.

Economy

Givat Brenner's plant nursery supplies turf for lawns and parks. The kibbutz grows cotton, avocado, wheat and corn, and maintains a dairy farm. Industrial ventures include a furniture factory, metalwork factory,

canned foods Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container (jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, although u ...

plant and an irrigation equipment factory, which gradually shut down for financial reasons. The 'House of Dreams' amusement park was established to offset waning income from the orchards, plant nurseries and factories, but was eventually closed.

Landmarks

The Treasure Museum, in the heart of the kibbutz, opened on the Givat Brenner's seventieth anniversary. It houses a collection of artifacts and photographs that tell the story of the kibbutz pioneers.

Notable people

Achi Brandt Achiezer Brandt ( he, אחי ברנד; born 1938 in Givat Brenner, today in Israel) is an Israeli mathematician, noted for his pioneering contributions to multigrid methods. Background Achi Brandt earned his Ph.D. degree at the Weizmann Institut ...

, mathematician noted for pioneering contributions to multigrid methods *

Aharon Megged Aharon Megged () (10 August 1920 – 23 March 2016) ( Hebrew year 5680) was an Israeli author and playwright. In 2003, he was awarded the Israel Prize for literature. Biography Aharon Greenberg (later Megged) was born in Włocławek, Poland. I ...

, author *

Yitzhak Sadeh Yitzhak Sadeh ( he, יצחק שדה, born Izaak Landoberg, August 10, 1890 – August 20, 1952), was the commander of the Palmach and one of the founders of the Israel Defense Forces at the time of the establishment of the State of Israel. ...

, writer and Haganah officer *

Jessie Sampter Jessie Sampter (March 22, 1883 – 1938) was a Jewish educator, poet, and Zionist pioneer. She was born in New York City and immigrated to Palestine in 1919. Biography Jessie Ethel Sampter was born in New York City to Rudolph Sampter, a New ...

, poet, close friend of Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold, established a vegetarian convalescent home on the kibbutz in 1938

References

External links

Official website

From Socialist Dream to Capitalist Reality
New York Times, April 1998
http://www.givat-brenner.co.il Givat Brenner website
{{Authority control German-Jewish culture in Israel Kibbutzim Kibbutz Movement Populated places established in 1928 Populated places in Central District (Israel) Polish-Jewish culture in Israel Lithuanian-Jewish culture in Israel 1928 establishments in Mandatory Palestine