Product Code Database
Ein Shemer is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Shomron region to the south of Route 65, about 6 km northeast of Hadera, it falls under the jurisdiction of Menashe Regional Council. In , it had a population of .
In 1927, the first pioneers of HaShomer HaTzair arrived at the site. The group consisted of 18 women and 36 men, all in their late teens and early twenties. These youngsters left behind parents, homes, and future careers in order to fulfill their dream of revitalizing the Jewish people in its ancient homeland, to work the land with their own hands and to make the Zionist vision come true. They had immigrated from Poland and had at first lived and worked at Ein Ganim near Petah Tikva, awaiting the opportunity to settle and make their contribution in Eretz Israel. Shavuot 1927 is considered the date of the founding of the kibbutz. In the coming years, more groups of HaShomer HaTzair pioneers from Poland joined the first group. Each group had its own name – Binyamina, Shomriya, BaDerech – which it kept even as its members were integrated into the kibbutz.
The hardships were great. Decades later, it is hard to grasp the enormity of the self-sacrifice that they made in leaving their childhood homes, families, relatives, language and native land. Many of them came from affluent families and most never saw their families again. The lives of the kibbutz members were almost unbearable and 80 of the 100 first members fell ill with malaria. In 1934 the kibbutz was finally hooked up to the electric grid, and only in 1935 water was found on the site, leading to a revolution in the development of the farmstead and to the erection of a local water tower.
As members of HaShomer HaTzair, the founders sought ways to bring about cooperation and friendly relations with their Arab neighbors, and social contact was slowly made with the farmers of the area. Yet during the 1930s and 1940s there were security concerns and tension. In 1938 two members of the kibbutz were murdered in an attack by an Arab gang. Following World War II kibbutz members took part in the so-called "illegal" immigration of Holocaust survivors to the Land of Israel, which was prohibited under the British Mandate. When British soldiers raided neighboring Kibbutz Giv'at Haim in 1945, Ein Shemer members rushed to the defense of that kibbutz and of the right of Jews to immigrate to the Land of Israel. In the ensuing combat one member, Elimelech Shtarkman, was killed and several others were wounded.
In 1942 the United Kingdom Royal Air Force built RAF Ein Shemer. During World War II it "was the largest military airfield in the country and home to seven Royal Air Force (RAF) squadrons and 1,500 RAF personnel." Between the autumn of 1943 and June 1945, it was home to 203 Group, RAF's 78 Operational Training Unit (OTU). It served as the workplace for as many as 600, mainly Arab, workers. This made it, in the opinion of its Commanding Officer, "the largest camp of its sort for civilian labour in the Middle East".
From the 1940s onward, scores of new members joined the kibbutz, some of them HaShomer HaTzair members from Egypt and the Balkans, which doubled the population of Ein Shemer. Others came through the Youth Aliya organization from Europe after the Holocaust and native Israelis joined in groups and individually.
In the mid 1980s Ein Shemer, together with much of the kibbutz movement, underwent a severe economic downturn as a result of the monetary policy of the new right-wing Israeli government. At the end of the 1990s the kibbutz emerged from the crisis after signing an agreement among the kibbutz, the banks and the Israel Land Administration.
At about the same time as the economic crisis, the kibbutz underwent a social transformation, as the center of social life went from the collective to the family unit. In the 1980s the children, who had slept in children's houses since the kibbutz was founded, began sleeping in their parents' homes. During the 1990s many items of consumption were privatized and the members' personal budgets were enlarged as the communal budget decreased in scope. From 2000 until 2011, an ongoing discussion raged concerning possible future distribution of differential salaries to the members – an issue that was decided upon on Sept. 11, 2011 and was put into effect on Jan. 1, 2012. Since that date Ein Shemer is privatization and belongs to a growing group of kibbutzim known as "renewing kibbutzim".
For many years Ein Shemer had one of the leading volleyball teams in Israel, and during the 1950s and 1960s the men's and women's teams were at the top of the national league. One of the high points for local sports fans was the game held in 1960 between HaPoel Ein Shemer and Galatasarai, a Turkish team, for which a playing court and bleachers were built on the kibbutz and still stand. Today Ein Shemer is a partner in a regional volleyball team, HaMa'apil-Ein-Shemer-Menashe.
The kibbutz has been known for its artists and intellectuals. In the first generation some of the prominent figures were: writers Moshe Zertal, Zvi Lurie, Rivka Gurfein, Rivka Gurfein Jewish Virtual Library poets Azriel Ukhmani and Arieh Shamri, poet and translator Zvi Arad, caricaturist and artist Yitzhak (Ignatz) Palgi, architect Ya'akov Gever and many others. Among the second generation, the children of the Ein-Shemer founders, and the children's spouses, are: poet and author Eli Alon, artists Avital Geva, Zibi Geva and Tzilla Lis, archaeologist and author Adam Zertal, thinker and writer Avishai Grossman, educator and writer Rafael (Rafi) Shapira, musician Miri Grossberg, blacksmith artisan Uri Hofi, cinematographer Yigal Tibon, journalist, writer and historian Nardo Zalko and many others. Notable talents of the third generation and their spouses include: author Rakefet Zohar, cinematographer Oren Tirosh, musician Zamir Golan and artist Atar Geva. Atar Geva Givon Art Gallery
The Ecological Greenhouse is an educational center dealing with ecology and social commitment. Jewish and Arab youths participate in seminars and workshops devoted to peaceful co-existence, ecology, environment and scientific research.
Hofi's Forge consists of a smithy, an exhibition hall and a school for blacksmiths founded by Uri Hofi, a blacksmith-artisan.
On the grounds of the kibbutz is a relief sculpture of the sculptor Nathan Rapoport commemorating the operations that brought so-called "illegal" Jewish immigrants to the Land of Israel and the participation of Ein Shemer members in those operations. Another notable monument commemorates two , members of the Kibbutz who were killed in the Six-Day War in 1967.
|
|
