FROM GARIN ALEPH TO GESHER HAZIV
From Smithville, Ontario, and Cream Ridge, N. J.; from New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, Montreal, and Toronto, we gathered for our first kinus (conference). The "we" was the first group of chaverim interested in forming
Habonim's first garin. The time: Chanuka, 1946. The place: New York. It was impossible, at that time, to formulate
exact plans. The ideas were new and nebulous, the approach fiery and idealistic, and the main task was to establish a framework for the garin. We succeeded in doing just this, and our first executive committee was elected having only a general outline assigned to it by the kinus. The first forty members joined the garin at that
kinus.
The following six months were utilized by the executive committee for enunciating the basic precepts of membership. Problems of kupa (group fund), higher education, vocational training, and equipment lists were tackled both by letter and by personal contacts. We were confronted by the insoluble problem of convening the executive committee meetings with its members scattered amongst four or five cities. To solve this problem and others, such as creating a center for garin activities, for influencing movement people, and for crystallizing our first aliya group, the bayit (house) was formed.
This may truly be called the "turning point." Twenty chaverim living in one house managed to convert the intent into a concrete reality. The bayit became the focal point of garin and movement activities. The committee, living together, for the first time met regularly and managed to tackle and solve some of the burning issues of the group.
The house was opened in October, 1947, in the exclusive residential district of Seagate. Chaverim who were in the movement at that time must surely remember the meetings and conferences that took place at the bayit. It also became the favorite inn for all wandering movement people. Of course, we also remember the notorious chaver who came for a week-end (not a garin member) and stayed on for three months because the atmosphere was so congenial. The vital and varied role the bayit played can be shown by a few examples:
1. When the Jewish State decision was accepted by the U.N. Assembly, the whole movement gravitated that night to the bayit and celebrated the event there. Literally hundreds of
chaverim and tens of residents of staid Seagate joined us in the bayit.
2. Large-scale, organized aliya from Habonim emanated from the house. The planning, the purchases, the meetings, and the aliya seminars were all centered there. Advice about aliya, personal problems, finances—all these and more came from the bayit.
3. At the time of the arms purchases for Hagana, the members of the bayit were active in this endeavor. One of the first addresses investigated at the time of the discovery that dynamite was being shipped to Palestine was the bayit.
There is no need to talk of the many fond, personal reminiscences, such as one dollar for a week's-allowance and how to spend it, the search for inexpensive recreation, the furnishing of the house, the Silver's Steam Baths on Friday nights, the Sunday morning ritual of cleaning the bayit, which consisted of moving all portable objects in the house (including our three-month visitor) onto the sidewalk, and many more such items.
The first large aliya group of Garin Aleph arrived at Ramat Yochanan in April, 1948, on the very same day that the kibbutz was attacked. They joined a small group of Americans who had previously arrived to form the new focal point for the garin. Our aliya was rapid and in a period of a few months over eighty members were concentrated at Ramat Yochanan.
This was the period when the crying need in the country was settlement. Israeli officials wanted to guarantee army gains, and the only effective method was to settle the land immediately and permanently. Though we had been at Ramat Yochanan a mere nine months and had far from achieved our basic and essential training requirements, we clamored for settlement. Jewish Agency people were reluctant to give us our way. They wanted to pamper and protect this American Habonim garin. After weeks of wrangling, we finally won. We then decided that we would not go out alone and thus become an American island in a sea of Israeli culture. Language problems still beset us; the reading of the Hebrew press was perfunctory; discussions were carried on in English; the radio vocabulary was above most of us. The solution we envisaged was uniting with a group that had a strong Israeli background. We found such a group in the people of Bet Haarava.
In passing, I must mention that one of our chaverim had left for America on a mission for the garin before the decision was adopted. The likely site, at the time of his departure, was a point called Farradiya, from where one can see both the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee. Upon arriving in America, he issued statements to the press on the new American settlement at Farradiya. Imagine his surprise upon receiving our cable that we had just united with Bet Haarava and settled on the coastal plain—a stone's throw from the Mediterranean and the Lebanese border. Furthermore, imagine our surprise upon receiving copies of newspapers headlining our settlement at Farradiya!
Make no mistake, we're at Gesher Haziv, a spot with a view that's worth millions—the Mediterranean on the west, the hills of Lebanon on the north, the hills of Galilee on the east, and the "palisade" view of Haifa on the south. Our beach is about one mile in length and about one hundred yards wide, with natural lagoons ideally suited for wading for children. Our land is bounded on the North by a very large wadi (dry river bed) called Wadi Koren and on the South by another wadi called Wadi Salik. We own, or rather lease from the JNF, thirty-five hundred dunam of land and have our own well, which supplies us with approximately fifty thousand gallons of water an hour.
On
the
day
of
settlement
our
borders
were
the
same,
the
hills
and
sea
the
same;
but
our
land
was
not
the
open,
lush
and
green
fields
with
a
backdrop
of
banana
plantations
and
orange
groves
that
we
have
today.
Almost
all
of
our
land
was
wooded.
Orange
groves,
figs,
apricots,
olives,
and
even
peace
trees
and
almonds
grew
on
our
land.
It
was
necessary
to
clear
these
groves
because
of
their
diseased
and
unprofitable
state.
Years
of
work
were
spend
uprooting,
bulldozing,
rooting,
and
plowing;
and
then
more
years
of
hand
labor,
at
gathering
stumps,
branches,
stones,
and
roots,
burning
piles
of
trees
and
then
clearing
stones
again,
were
expended
on
the
massive
land
clearance
project.
According
to
the
Agriculture
Department
of
the
government,
this
was
the
largest
land
clearing
carried
out
by
an
kibbutz.
It
has
cost
us
tremendous
expenses
both
in
actual
cash
outlay
and
labor.
Furthermore, we lost income from thousands of dunam of land for many years. This year, for the first time, it can be said that we are cultivating all of our arable land.
MIKEY KIRSHENBAUM, Gesher
Haziv,
1959