Ma'ale HaHamisha

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Ma'ale HaHamisha
Founded	19 July 1938
Founded by	Gordonia youth movement members
Region	Judean hills
Industries	Agriculture, Tourism
Affiliation	Kibbutz Movement

Ma'ale Hahamisha (Hebrew: מעלה החמישה‎, lit. Ascent of the Five) is a kibbutz located in the Judean hills just off the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway in Israel. It falls under the jurisdiction of Matte Yehuda Regional Council.

[edit] History

The kibbutz was founded by members of the Gordonia youth movement on 19 July 1938 as one of 57 tower and stockade settlements founded almost overnight in the late 1930s and early 1940s to establish a permanent Jewish presence in pre-state Israel in the face of Arab and British opposition.

[edit] Economy

The kibbutz originally supported itself primarily on agriculture and developed both the Ma'ale HaHamisha cauliflower and peach, as well as gaining income from a hotel. In the early 2000s, the main issue in privatization of the kibbutz was what type of finanacial and social change could take place. Until then, all sources of income, including German reparations and old age payments, went into the kibbutz kitty, which supplied all necessities, communal and individual. The concept of sliding pay scales for different work — promoted primarily by the younger generation — had to be reconciled with the contributions of the veteran members.

The kibbutz struggled over the fate of community property. Members' apartments might be individually owned, but over the years, as the older generation remained in smaller units, bigger apartments were built for the younger generation and for a new familial sleeping scheme that had abandoned separate children’s houses. Members also had to decide what to do with the hotel and conference center.It took intervention by an outside arbitrator to reconcile the differences.^[1] In January 2005 the kibbutz was privatized.