Givat Brenner ( he, גִּבְעַת בְּרֶנֶר, lit. ''Brenner Hill''; ar, غفعات برينر), is 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 ...
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
Rehovot ( he, רְחוֹבוֹת ''Rəḥōvōt'', ar, رحوڤوت ''Reḥūfūt'') is a city in the Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of .
Etymology
Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu movement, ...
, it falls under the jurisdiction of
Brenner Regional Council. Founded in 1928, it is named after writer
Yosef Haim Brenner, who was killed in the
Jaffa riots of 1921. In it had a population of . It is the largest
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 ...
in
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 ...
.
History
Givat Brenner was founded in 1928 by
Enzo Sereni and a group of immigrants from
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. 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 betwee ...
. That same year, pioneers had settled on some 200
dunams (49.4 acres) of land that had been purchased by
Moshe Smilansky from the Arab landholders of
Aqir and
Zarnuqa. 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, 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 Gurkha ...
, 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
The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Companies") was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The 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
The New Jersey Turnpike (NJTP) is a system of controlled-access highways in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The turnpike is maintained by the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA).The Garden State Parkway, although maintained by NJTA, is not cons ...
. 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 inc ...
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 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, 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
Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the I ...
officer
* Jessie Sampter, poet, close friend of Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold
Henrietta Szold ( , ; December 21, 1860 – February 13, 1945) was a U.S. Jewish Zionist leader and founder of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. In 1942, she co-founded Ihud, a political party in Mandatory Palestine d ...
, established a vegetarian convalescent home on the kibbutz in 1938
References
Further reading
* Gavron, Daniel. ''The Kibbutz: Awakening from Utopia''. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.
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