Ben Shemen (settlement)
| Ben Shemen | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic data | |||
| hebrew : | בֶּן שֶׁמֶן | ||
| State : |
 Israel
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| District : | Central | ||
| Founded : | 1905 (originally) 1952 (re-established after destruction) |
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| Coordinates : | 31 ° 58 ' N , 34 ° 56' E | ||
| Height : | 65 m | ||
| Residents : | 865 (as of 2018) | ||
| Community code : | 2013 | ||
| Time zone : | UTC + 2 | ||
| Postal code : | 73115 | ||
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Ben Shemen ( Hebrew בֶּן שֶׁמֶן, German: 'very fertile') is a settlement in central Israel and is located about four kilometers east of Lod . The name of the settlement is borrowed from the book of Isaiah . Ben Shemen was one of the first Jewish settlements in Palestine after 1900 and was of great importance for the development of Jewish agriculture. It later became known through the children's and youth village Ben Shemen founded by Siegfried Lehmann in 1927 .
history
In 2001, an old oil press was discovered while building a motorway near Ben Shemen. Dating back to the sixth century AD, a late phase of settlement in the area, it testified that Ben Shemen belonged to a group of settlements from Roman times in the Lod plain. The area only became more aware of history through the Jewish land acquisition at the beginning of the 20th century and the increasing Jewish settlement in Palestine.
Land acquisition
Around 1905, the Anglo-Palestine Bank acquired 2,330 dunams of land in the Lod Valley (often also: Lydda) and in the vicinity of the Arab village of Haditha (also: Al-Haditha), which was destroyed in the Israeli War of Independence in 1948 . There are contradicting information about the exact date. Ari Shavit speaks of the fact that the land was acquired "in the fall of 1903, following the Sixth Zionist Congress". The Encyclopedia Judaica (see web links) speaks of 1904 and Alex Bein dates the land acquisition to the period between 1905 and 1907. The Jewish National Fund ( JNF or JNF-KKL ) writes on its website that according to Hadera (1903) there were lands in the 1905 Near the Sea of Galilee and Ben Shemen his first land purchases in Palestine. The property was originally called Beit Arif , which later became Ben Shemen . These different dates are probably also a result of the changing ownership, because the first purchaser of the land, the Anglo-Palestine Bank , transferred it to the JNF around 1907/1908 . Depending on the source, there are also different details about the time of the transfer of ownership.
The Nahum Wilbush Oil Factory
An initial development on the newly acquired land resulted from a partial sale. In 1905 the Anglo-Palestine Bank sold 100 dunams of land to Nahum Wilbush, actually Nahum Wilbuschewitz (1879–1971), a Lithuanian “mechanical engineer. He went in 1903 to Eretz Israel and founded Atid, the first edible oil factory in the country, first in Ben Shemen and later in Haifa. "The website of the day in Haifa -based Industries Ltd. Shemen there is, however, a slightly different representation. After that, Nahum Wilbush was the head of a Zionist Hovevei Zion group from Minsk. After purchasing the site, which is densely overgrown with olives, he traveled through Europe to learn the process of chemical extraction and to order the necessary equipment. He was not primarily interested in the production of olive oil, but in the recycling of press residues for secondary products, such as soaps. “The Hadid factory, later known as Ben-Shemen, was founded in 1905 with financial support from Jews from Tzritzin, who supported Wilbosh's company. The factory started operations in late January 1906 when all equipment arrived. The first season was not particularly blessed - only 10% oil was produced out of 260 tons of rapeseed, and by the end of the season the amount of oil dropped to only 5-6%. The factory was used by Petach-Tikva and the farmers of Rehovot . "
Whether Wilbush's oil factory first bore the name Hadid , or the name Atid ( future ) from the start, cannot be clearly determined. The website of Shemen Industries Ltd. leaves that open. There the term »“ Atid ”Factory« appears as a subheading, but then, alluding to the difficulties the factory had to contend with, it says: “Despite the difficulties, Nahum Wilbosh did not give up, and in 1919 he founded together with his Brothers Moshe and Gedaliah Wilboshvitz and Eliyahu Panison founded the company "Shemen" in London. Since they needed a duty-free port for export, they planned to build one near Caesarea . Houses were rented and concepts written, but the UK government objected, despite the lobbying of Zeev Jabotinskys . In 1922, Nahum and Gedaliah Wilboshvitz started the "Shemen" factory near the "Atid" factory and began assembling the machines. The new factory has integrated advanced manufacturing methods and machines - hydraulic presses and diesel engines, as well as a modern refinery and soap factory. The engines of the factory were inaugurated by the British High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel in December 1924. “Whether the sentence» In 1922 Nahum and Gedaliah Wilboshvitz began with the establishment of the factory "Shemen" near the factory "Atid" «should mean Shemen and Atid to this one When there were two separate factories, it is just as unclear as the place where this neighborhood was located. The Encyclopaedia Judaica assumes on the one hand that Wilbush's company was named Atid from the start , but on the other hand it says that Shemen Factory was located in Haifa in the early 1920s.
In the literature, the name Atid is predominantly used as the founding name of the Ben Shemen factory , and the year 1905, the year it was founded, is also considered to be the year Ben Shemen was founded . Today's Shemen Industries Ltd. Credit: "The Shemen factory went to great lengths to encourage and market the consumption of Israeli products, and it was one of the first factories to have played a major role in building the country." Its founder, Nahum Wilbush, was also member of a delegation that traveled to East Africa as part of the British Uganda Program to find refuge for the Jews.
Israel Belkind's school and training center
Also around 1905, but after Nahum Wilbush, Israel Belkind acquired 50 dunams of land from the Anglo-Palestine Bank to set up an agricultural training business. There is also conflicting information about this foundation. So it is on a website of the Jewish Agency for Israel , "1903 founded Belkind in Shfeya, near Zichron Yaakov ., An agricultural school for orphaned in Kishinev pogrom teenagers, but the school failed three years later for lack of money" With Shefeya is it was Meir Shfeya , and there Belkind founded Kiryat Sefer in 1903 , but: "After two years of quarreling with the baron's envoys in the colony, Belkind was asked to bring the children to Ben-Shemen." by Kiryat Sefer in a way that makes the connection between the individual places plausible:
“In the meantime, the Kishineff pogrom occurred and, on Ussishkin's initiative, a fund was set up to transfer the orphans of the Jews killed in the pogroms to Palestine, where they were to be trained. From this fund, the purchase of 5,000 dunams for a training farm and the later settlement of orphans in the country was planned. An amount should also be made available to Belkind for the school. Preparations for the implementation of the project were delayed, however, and Belkind, who did not want to wait, embarked for Palestine in December 1903 and took 52 orphans with him, for whom he had temporary accommodation in Rishon Letzion and Shefeya (at Zikhron Ya'akov ) found. He built a schoolhouse and a farm in Ben Shemen with funds he had raised himself. The buildings were completed in 1906. The school had already opened in makeshift rooms; but the new buildings had exhausted all of Belkind's resources, so he had to close the school and go abroad to raise more money. "
Belkind's fundraising plans came to nothing because "after 1906, Belkind wandered through Eretz Yisrael and abroad and never really found a permanent home". The school he founded and the entire Kiryat Sefer remained closed and were later taken over by Yitzhak Wilkansky (see below).
The olive grove project
In 1903 the Sixth Zionist Congress came to the conclusion that a fund should be established under the umbrella of the JNF , which should promote the planting of olive trees in Palestine. The idea behind it: “The olive was created by Dr. SE Soskin , an agronomist and member of the Palestine Committee, was chosen for its longevity, the ease with which it is grown and cultivated, and the cost effectiveness of its care. The olive harvest is safer than other fruit trees; and in the five or six years after planting it is possible to grow crops in the spaces between the trees. In addition, thousands of Jewish workers and tenants would be employed, new industries would be created, and exports and trade would flourish. "
The project initially met with little approval and only picked up speed after Otto Warburg placed it in the context of a Herzl Forst in memory of Theodor Herzl , who died in 1904, at the 7th Zionist Congress . For this purpose, a tree nursery was established between the Atid factory and the abandoned Kiryat Sefer in 1908, which was run by an agronomist named Berman. He underestimated the symbolic meaning of the new planting, which was also intended to demonstrate "that the new Jews could grow olive trees that were as beautiful as the trees in the groves of the Arabs in the valley long ago." This "Jewish national manifestation" was opposed by the fact that Berman had the olive trees of the nursery planted by Arab workers, which caused the displeasure of Jewish workers. They got together and pulled the saplings planted by Arab workers out of the ground in order to then replant them with their own - Jewish - hands. All subsequent work was then only carried out by Jews.
The Herzl forest
The tree nursery run by Berman was also the nucleus for the Herzl forest . After the dispute over the olive trees planted by Arab workers had been settled, Jewish workers "planted 12,000 trees of various kinds on the grounds of Ben Shemen, thus completing the initial phase of the Herzl Forest". Although only a quarter of the 12,000 olive trees had taken root, the forest survived, but a few years later, on the advice of experts, trees of predominantly forestry interest were planted. The Ben Shemen Forest is still considered the largest forest in central Israel today. “The Ben Shemen Forest was the first and largest reforestation initiative in the history of the State of Israel and currently covers an area of 22,000 dunams east of the city of Lod. It borders Modi'in Forest, and the two forests together cover a total of around 30,000 dunams. [..] When KKL-JNF bought the land in 1907, olive groves were planted there, but the yield fell short of expectations, so the experts decided to plant pine and cypress trees. ”The Ben Shemen Forest was expanded and maintained Continued continuously in the years after Israeli independence and today presents itself as an active recreational area and tourist center. Since the 1990s, the forest has been regarded as the largest “green lung” in central Israel, which is particularly useful to the residents of the greater Gush Dan area .
The agricultural school
Also in 1908 it was decided by the Jewish side to use part of the area now taken over by the JNF for a training company in connection with the agricultural school left by Belkin. Beinging in the context assumes that the coexistence of agricultural college and forest planting would have led to inadequate conditions and had therefore been decided to Herzl Forest in the grounds of Kibbutz Chulda (also: Hulda) to apply where it is actually a Hulda Forest with gives a Herzl House . The way was now clear for the next development step in Ben Shemen.
In 1909, the JNF-KKL set up a model agricultural project in Ben Shemen under the direction of Yitzhak Wilkansky and on the site of the former Kiryat Sefer , whose "work with mixed crops or plant diversification forms the basis of most of Israeli agriculture to this day." Yitzhak Elazari Wilkansky, who later called himself Ithzak Elazari Volcani and is the father of the microbiologist Benjamin Elazari Volcani , who was born in Ben Shemen in 1915 , was previously a teacher at Belkind's school. Wilkansky, a staunch Zionist, followed two principles in his work:
- Jewish settlement must be promoted exclusively through Jewish labor and by Jewish workers. The Jewish economy must be built up as if there were no non-Jewish workers. The Jewish worker should be seen as a permanent and immutable factor, as should the land. If Jewish work could not be adapted to the generally accepted forms of economy, it must be adapted to them, just as adaptations in agriculture were made due to the specifics of the soil.
- In Wilkansky's view, it was not possible to simply transfer European farming methods to Palestine, and the replacement of monocultures by mixed agriculture - an increasingly accepted realization - would not alone be able to give Jewish farms a solid economic base. Therefore it is necessary to work scientifically and to experiment in order to find out the fundamentals that are best suited for the different conditions of Jewish agriculture. This requires trained agronomists, because the individual farmer who has to earn his living from agriculture could not possibly work experimentally.
Wilkansky, who had also taken on responsibility for Hulda in 1910 , viewed the tree planting only as a basis for safeguarding the work in Ben Shemen and Hulda . It was more important to him to find financial resources for testing new branches of agriculture, especially since he was also aware that the tree plantings would not yield any yield for a long time, while on the other hand there was a need for harvestable and usable crops - for that reason alone to reduce the cost of living on the needs of the people on the ward. However, growing grain proved difficult, the soil at Ben Shemen and Hulda was ideal for tree plantations, but not for normal agriculture. Above all, the ability of the soil to store moisture had to be improved. Wilkansky experimented with irrigation methods and "within a few years Ben Shemen was producing the best wheat in all of Palestine". He also relied on the experience of German colonists of the Temple Society , who founded their colony Wilhelma (today: Bnei Atarot ) very close by in 1902 and who were already successful in growing vegetables and fodder plants as well as in dairy farming. Wilklansky pushed research on special test areas, experimented with artificial fertilizers and worked systematically to find the most suitable crop rotation for different types of soil and to increase yield.
In 1911 ten Yemeni families settled in Ben Shemen . They followed the tradition of the Bezalel School of Arts & Crafts and sought to create a connection between agriculture and handicrafts. “Professor Boris Schatz , one of the founders of the Bezalel Art Academy, founded a village for silversmiths and goldsmiths. KKL JNF granted each of the ten families that had come from Jerusalem with the intention of living here and combining small-scale business with agriculture one piece of land for two dunams. This novel attempt to establish a community failed, however, but some of these houses can still be seen today “and were later occupied by workers who worked on the estate.
From 1912 Wilkansky was able to expand the dairy industry considerably with financial support from the JNF . He tried to achieve his goal of breeding cows that would be resistant to the Palestinian climate and at the same time promise a high milk yield by crossing Lebanese cows with Frisian and Dutch cows. “This was the first large-scale experiment of its kind on a Jewish farm, the successful results of which were to have a decisive influence on the development of the Jewish dairy industry. In fact, everything that was later achieved in this area was due to the work in Ben Shemen. ”How successful these attempts were and still are today is documented in a recent newspaper article on“ The Wonder Cows from the Desert ”, which reports that "Israeli cows [give] the most milk worldwide - almost twice as much as Germans".
Based on Wilkansky's agricultural experiments, Ben Shemen “increasingly evolved into a model settlement and even took precedence over Merchavia , Dagania and Kinnereth as a place where workers could gain practical experience . Workers from the Jewish villages went to Ben Shemen because there they could acquire knowledge of modern agricultural methods that was unattainable elsewhere. ”In 1913, at the suggestion of Wilkansky, Ben Shemen was converted into a training company. “He formed working groups composed of experienced farmers, one of whom settled in the vacant homes of the evacuated Yemenis, and created a tiny but thriving village. For sixteen years Vilkansky achieved great things in the Lydda Valley and proved that, as Chaim Weizmann put it, 'Jewish hands' can work miracles. "
In Ben Shemen, the principle of entrusting the work to groups of self-employed workers was expanded, which resulted in the settlement being able to deliver milk to Tel Aviv at the beginning of the First World War. But then Ben Shemen got between the fronts of the Turkish and Allied armies and was largely destroyed. When it was repopulated is unknown, but a change seems to have taken place in 1921: "In 1921 one of the first moshavim was founded in Ben Shemen." According to other sources, however, that was not until 1923, and the move followed as a spin-off from Ben Shemen: In 1923 the settlement community split up there and a group of experimental farmers founded the separate moshaw Kerem Ben Shemen .
In 1922, according to a report by the British Mandate Authorities , 90 people again lived in Ben Shemen , 44 men and 46 women, the number of which had grown to 353 people in 30 houses by 1931.
In 1926, Wilkansky, who had been in charge of all agricultural activities in the Palestine Office since the beginning of World War I , finally moved the focus of his activities from Ben Shemen to Rechovot . The background to this was a resolution of the Zionist executive in what was then Palestine from the period 1920/1921. An agricultural research institute should be established. “Yitzhak Elazari Wilkansky, who came up with the idea of founding an agricultural research institute based on 'scientific research with special tools' (from his book On the way ), was led by Arthur Ruppin and the third president of the Zionist movement, Prof. Otto Warburg , supported. During the establishment of the station, Prof. Otto Warburg was director of the Institute for Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Yitzhak Elazari Wilkansky director of the agricultural experimentation station and in 1928 he moved to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Yitzhak Elazari Wilkansky (later Volcanic), founder of the station (and head of the economics department), presented a plan of action on three levels: research, training and teaching. When the station was established, they began doing research and training that was built into the facility. "
The children's and youth village
In 1927 Siegfried Lehmann founded the children's and youth village Ben Shemen, which still exists today . “On a rainy winter day, Lehmann [...] moved into Kiryat Sefer with his wife and a dozen orphans from Kaunas , into the buildings that Israel Belkind had erected twenty years earlier for the children who were their parents during the Kishinev pogroms lost. ”In 1934 it was one of the first bases for the child and youth alijah .
Ben Shemen in the War of Independence
The valley of Lod (Lydda), crossed by the road from Jaffa to Jerusalem , to which Ben Shemen also belongs, has been an important transport route and of strategic importance since ancient times. As a result, the valley became the scene of bitter clashes between Arabs and Jews during the Israeli War of Independence .
On January 26, 1940, the British police raided the children's and youth village. Weapons stored there by the Haganah were found, and Siegfried Lehman and others were arrested and sentenced to prison terms.
In December 1947, a seven-car convoy was ambushed on the way to Ben Shemen, and thirteen of the Jewish inmates were murdered. In February 1948, 400 children were evacuated from the children's and youth village; two months later the settlement became a fortified military post. However, the clashes between Arabs and Jews have not yet escalated.
It is unclear to what extent Ben Shemen himself was a victim of the War of Independence. In early 1948, both the school and the moshav were besieged and the school was evacuated afterwards.
Beginning in July 1948 approved David Ben-Gurion , the operation Larlar to the conquest of Lod, Ramla , Latrun and Ramallah . As a result, on July 11, 1948 , Moshe Dayan concentrated a regiment in Ben Shemen and began the attack on Lod from there. The city was taken within a short time, with great losses for the Arabs. On the following day, due to several misunderstandings, there was renewed fighting in Lod, in which graduates from the children's and youth village were also involved.
“The supporters of the Zionist movement are staging a massacre in Lydda.” The Jewish commander of this massacre, Mula Cohen, was a graduate of the Ben Shemen children's and youth village. Like Siegfried Lehmann, he came from Kaunas and was friends with him. As a result, Yitzchak Rabin gave the order to expel the Arab population from the city. Lod was evacuated on July 13, 1948. “Forty-five years, Zionism pretended to manifest itself in the Atid factory, the olive forest and the Ben Shemen youth settlement, to be identical to all of these. Then, in the three days of the terrible summer of 1948, the incompatibility was revealed - with tragic consequences. Lydda no longer existed. "
After the war
In 1952 a new moshav was founded by settlers from Romania, whose main occupation was milk and citrus cultivation. The Encyclopedia Judaica leaves open whether it was the start-up of Ben Shemen or another spin-off. On the side of the JNF it says: "After the establishment of the State of Israel, the Moshav Ben Shemen was re-established on the foundations of the abandoned moshav."
Founded in 1970, Modan Publishing House , one of the largest Israeli publishers, is based in Ben Shemen.
In 2002 550 people lived in the moshav and 638 in the children's and youth village.
Ben Shemen Interchange
The Ben Shemen Interchange (Hebrew: מחלף בן בן) is one of the largest and most complex highway junctions in Israel. It links Highway 1, Highway 6, Route 443, and Route 444, as well as several local roads. ( Location ) Route 443 now separates the children's and youth village and Kerem Ben Shemen to the north of it from Ben Shemen to the south of the road.
Photo gallery
Ben Shemen: Photo from the Palmach -Archiv, 1948. Photographer from Palmach archive
Ben Shemen: Base of the Yiftach Brigade of the Palmach, 1948
Ben Shemen: Dining Room 1948
Ben Shemen: Harvest
Ben Shemen: Wool Production
Ben Shemen: Evacuation in early 1948
Ben Shemen: around 2010
literature
- Deborah S. Bernstein: Constructing Boundaries. Jewish an Arab Workers in Mandatory Palestine , State University of New York Press, New York, 2000, ISBN 0-7914-4539-9 .
- Gur Alroey: To Unpromising Land. Jewish Migration to Palestine in the Early Twentieth Century , Stanford University Press, Stanford (California), 2014, ISBN 978-0-8047-8932-5 .
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Ari Shavit : My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel , Spiegel & Grau, New York, 2013, ISBN 9780385521703 .
- German edition: My promised land. Triumph and Tragedy of Israel , Bertelsmann, Munich, 2015; ISBN 9783570102268 .
- Alex Bein : The Return to the Soil , The Youth and Hechalutz Department of the Zionist Organization, Jerusalem, 1952.
Web links
- BEN SHEMEN YOUTH VILLAGE: Homepage
- Encyclopedia Judaica: Ben Shemen
- BEN SHEMEN YOUTH VILLAGE: History
Individual evidence
- ↑ אוכלוסייה ביישובים 2018 (population of the settlements 2018). (XLSX; 0.13 MB) Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , August 25, 2019, accessed May 11, 2020 .
- ↑ In the Encyclopedia Judaica: Ben Shemen , reference is made to Book 5, verse 1. "Let me sing of my well-beloved, a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill; "" Let me sing of my beloved, a song of my beloved that touches their vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill; "(Quoted from: Isaiah Chapter 5 )
- ↑ Ben Shemen, Cross-Israel Highway: Reproduction of an oil press , Israel Antiquities Authority
- ↑ Palestine Remembered: Welcome To al-Haditha
- ↑ Ari Shavit: My Promised Land , p. 147
- ↑ Alex Bein: The Return to the Soil , p. 23
- ↑ The Hebrew name of the JNF is Keren Kayemeth Le'Israel , from which the abbreviation KKL or JNF-KKL is derived.
- ^ Jewish National Fund: Our History
- ↑ Ari Shavit: My Promised Land , p. 147
- ↑ a b c Encyclopaedia Judaica: Wilbuschewitz Family
- ↑ About Shemen Industries Ltd. "Hadid" factory, later known as "Ben-Shemen", was established in 1905 with the financial assistance of Jews from Tzritzin who accepted Wilbosh's enterprise. The factory began working by the end of January 1906, when all the equipment arrived. The first season was not particularly blessed - out of 260 tons of rape, only 10% of oil was produced, and by the end of the season, the amount of oil reduced to merely 5-6%. The factory was used by Petach-Tikva and Rehovot's farmers. ”The place Tzritzin is probably a place on the Volga near the city of Astrakhan .
- ↑ About Shemen Industries Ltd. “Despite the difficulties, Nahum Wilbosh did not give up, and in 1919 he founded“ Shemen ”company in London together with his brothers Moshe and Gedaliah Wilboshvitz and Eliyahu Panison. Since they needed a duty free port in order to export, they planned on building one near Caesarea. Houses were leased and schemes were written, but the British government objected, in spite of Zeev Jabotinsky's lobbyism. In 1922 Nahum and Gedaliah Wilboshvitz began establishing “Shemen” factory near “Atid” factory and started assembling the machines. In the new factory, advanced methods of manufacturing and machinery were integrated - hydraulic pressers and diesel engines as well as a modern refinery and soapery. The factory's engines were inaugurated in December 1924 by the British High Commissioner, Sir Herbert Samuel. "
- ↑ About Shemen Industries Ltd. "Shemen" factory put much effort in prompting and marketing the consumption of Israeli products, and was among the first factories which took a major part in building the country. "
- ↑ a b Belkind, Israel (1861-1929) , Bilu Founder and Educator
- ^ Orphanage which became youth village . "After two years of dispute with the baron's emissaries at the colony, Belkind was prompted to move the children to Ben-Shemen."
- ↑ Alex Bein: The Return to the Soil , p. 103. “Meanwhile the Kishineff pogrom occurred, and on Ussishkin's iniftiative a fund was raised for transferring the orphans of Jews killed in the pogroms to Palestine, where they were to he educated. Out of this fund provision was made for the purchase of 5,000 dunams for a training farm and the eventual settlement of the ophans on the land. A sum was also to be put at Belkind's disposal for the school. However, preparations for implementing the project were delayed, and Belkind, who did not want to wait, set sail for Palestine in December, 1903, taking with him 52 orphans, for whom he found temporary accommodation at Rishon Letzion and Shefeya (near Zikhron Ya 'akov). He built a schoolhouse and farmyard at Ben Shemen out of funds that he himself had collected. The buildings were completed in 1906. The school had already been opened in temporary quarters; but the new buildings had exhausted all Belkind's resources, so that he had to close the school and go abroad to obtain more money. "
- ↑ Alex Bein: The Return to the Soil , p. 52. “The olive was selected by Dr. SE Soskin, an agronomist and member of the Palestine Committee, on account of its longevity, the ease with which it is planted and cultivated, and the cheapness of its maintenance. The crop of the olive is more assured than of other fruit trees; and for five or six years after planting it is possible to grow field crops in the spaces between the trees. [..] In addition, employment would be provided for thousands of Jewish workers and tenant farmers; new industries would be created; and exports and commerce would flourish. "
- ↑ Alex Bein: The Return to the Soil , p. 53
- ↑ Ari Shavit: My Promised Land , p. 148
- ↑ Ari Shavit: My Promised Land , p. 149
- ↑ Alex Bein: The Return to the Soil , p. 55. "By the end of the month, 12,000 trees of various kinds had been planted, completing the initial phase of the Herzlwald."
- ↑ KKL-JNF First Decade: 1901-1910
- ↑ Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael / Jewish National Fund: Ben Shemen Forest - Archeology & Hiking in Central Israel "Ben Shemen Forest was the first and the largest afforestation initiative in the history of the State of Israel and at present covers an area of 22,000 dunams east of the city of Lod. It is adjacent to Modi'in Forest, and both forests together cover a total area of around 30,000 dunams. [..] When KKL-JNF purchased the land in 1907, olive groves were planted there, but the yield fell short of expectations, so the experts decided to plant pines and cypress trees. Along with tree planting, KKL-JNF undertook land development for settling the area. "
- ↑ a b Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael / Jewish National Fund: Ben Shemen Forest
- ↑ KKL-JNF: Hulda Forest - Herzl House: the Beginings of Israel . The strange thing is that the JNF tells the story of the Hulda Forest on this page in an almost identical way as it was reproduced above based on Alex Bein and Ari Shavit. The JNF tells a story closer to Bein and Sharit on its page about the KKL-JNF: Ben Shemen Forest
- ↑ Ari Shavit: My Promised Land , p. 149
- ^ Jewish National Fund: Our History . "It was also during this period that JNF-KKL set up an experimental agricultural station at Ben Shemen under the direction of Yitzhak Wilkansky, whose work in mixed farming, or crop diversification, remains the basis of most Israeli agriculture to this day."
- ↑ a b Alex Bein: The Return to the Soil , p. 105
- ↑ Alex Bein: The Return to the Soil , p. 106
- ↑ Alex Bein: The Return to the Soil , p. 107
- ↑ Alex Bein: The Return to the Soil , p. 108
- ↑ Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael / Jewish National Fund: Ben Shemen Forest - Archeology & Hiking in Central Israel . "Professor Boris Schatz, one of the founders of the Bezalel Art Academy, established a village for silversmiths and goldsmiths. KKL JNF granted a two dunam plot to each of the ten families who came from Jerusalem to live there, with the intention of combining small industries with agriculture. This novel attempt to establish a community failed, however, but a few of those houses can still be seen. "
- ↑ Alex Bein: The Return to the Soil , p. 108. “This was the first large-scale experiment of its kind on a Jewish Farm; and its successful results were to have a decisive influence upon the development of Jewish dairy farming. Indeed, all that was subsequently achieved in this field was due to the work done at Ben Shemen. "
- ↑ Järkel: The Wonder Cows from the Desert , Frankfurter Rundschau, February 12, 2019
- ↑ Alex Bein: The Return to the Soil , p. 108. “To an increasing extent Ben Shemen developed into a model settlement; and as a place where workers could acquire practical experience it gained preeminence even over Merchavia, Dagania and Kinnereth. Workers from the Judean villages went to Ben Shemen because there they could acquire a knowledge of modern methods of farming unobtainable elsewhere. "
- ↑ a b Ari Shavit: My Promised Land , p. 150
- ↑ a b Alex Bein: The Return to the Soil , p. 167
- ↑ a b c d Encyclopedia Judaica: Ben Shemen
- ↑ Google Maps knows both settlements as separate locations, supplemented by the third location, the Ben Shemen Youth Village , which is located between the other two.
- ↑ 1922 census for the Jerusalem-Jaffa district
- ↑ Census of Palestine 1931
- ↑ The quote is a text automatically translated from Hebrew from the website History of Agricultural Research in Israel . On Wilkansky's importance for Israeli agriculture, see also the introduction by Kärin Nickelsen and Dana von Suffrin to MUNICH CONTRIBUTIONS ON JEWISH HISTORY AND CULTURE: ZIONISM AND NATURAL SCIENCE , vol. 8, volume 1, 2014.
- ↑ BEN SHEMEN YOUTH VILLAGE: Homepage
- ↑ Ari Shavit: My Promised Land , p. 151
- ↑ Ben Shemen raided by British police
- ↑ Ari Shavit: My Promised Land , p. 157
- ↑ Ari Shavit: My Promised Land , p. 159
- ^ Ari Shavit: Lydda, 1948. A city, a massacre, and the Middle East today , The New Yorker , October 21, 2013
- ↑ Ari Shavit: My Promised Land , pp. 160-161
- ↑ Homepage Modan Publishing House (in Hebrew)