Lohamei HaGeta'ot ( he, לוֹחֲמֵי הַגֵּיטָאוֹת, ''lit.'' The Ghetto Fighters) 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 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 ...

. Located in the western

Galilee Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Galil ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Mateh Asher Regional Council The Mateh Asher Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית מטה אשר, ''Mo'atza Azorit Mateh Asher'') is a regional council in the western Galilee of northern Israel. It is named after the Tribe of Asher which had been allotted the region ...

. In it had a population of .

History

The kibbutz was founded by

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no unive ...

in 1949 on the coastal highway between

Acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

and

Nahariya Nahariya ( he, נַהֲרִיָּה, ar, نهاريا) is the northernmost coastal city in Israel. In it had a population of . Etymology Nahariya takes its name from the stream of Ga'aton (river is ''nahar'' in Hebrew), which bisects it. Hist ...

, on the site of an abandoned British Army base and the depopulated Palestinian village of al-Sumayriyya. Its founding members include surviving fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (notably Yitzhak Zuckerman, ŻOB deputy commander), as well as former Jewish partisans and other

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

survivors. Its name commemorates the Jews who fought the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. Historian Tom Segev describes

Zvi Dror Zvi Dror (alt. Zvika Dror) (born September 1, 1926) is an Israeli historian of Zionism and the creation of the state of Israel. His books were published in Hebrew. Dror was a member of Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot. Tom Segev describes Dror as the ...

's four-volume history of the lives of the Holocaust survivors who founded the kibbutz as one of the most important books ever written about Holocaust survivors in Israel." Anita Shapira, who translates the title as "Testimony pages," describes Dror's book as "one of the first projects to coax the mute to speak" about the Holocaust.

Economy

In the mid-1980s the kibbutz acquired the Tivall vegetarian food products factory, which has become a mainstay of its income. Other branches include a large dairy and agriculture and a bed and breakfast. The kibbutz is currently undergoing a process of

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

. It operates a bed and breakfast for tourists to the area.

Archaeology

Alongside the kibbutz are the extensive remains of an aqueduct which supplied water to

some 6 km away, until 1948. The aqueduct was originally built at the end of the 18th century by Jezzar Pasha, the Ottoman ruler of Acre, but was completely rebuilt by his successor,

Suleiman Suleiman (Arabic language, Arabic: سُلِيمَان ''sulaymān''; or dictionary.reference.comsuleiman/ref>) is the Arabic name of the Quranic king and Islam, Islamic prophet Solomon (name), Solomon meaning "man of peace", derived from the Heb ...

, in 1814.Moreh Derech trip report
/ref> Amatsuliman01

Museum

The kibbutz operates the

Ghetto Fighters' House The Ghetto Fighters' House ( he, בית לוחמי הגטאות, ''Beit Lohamei Ha-Getaot''), full name, Itzhak Katzenelson Holocaust and Jewish Resistance Heritage Museum, Documentation and Study Center, was founded in 1949 by members of Kibbut ...

, a history museum commemorating those who fought the Nazis. Adjacent to the museum is a large amphitheater used frequently for concerts, assemblies, and ceremonies hosted by the museum. Ghetto Fighters' House

Notable people

* Zvika Greengold * Zivia Lubetkin * Yitzchak Zukerman

References

Bibliography

* Tom Segev: ''The Seventh Million: Israelis and the Holocaust'' (2000, ) (p. 449-455)

External links

Ghetto Fighters' House websiteKibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot
{{Authority control Kibbutzim Kibbutz Movement Populated places established in 1949 Populated places in Northern District (Israel) 1949 establishments in Israel Polish-Jewish culture in Israel