Beit Zera

Beit Zera
Beit Zera
Coordinates: 32°41′20.03″N 35°34′24.23″E / 32.6888972°N 35.5733972°E / 32.6888972; 35.5733972Coordinates: 32°41′20.03″N 35°34′24.23″E / 32.6888972°N 35.5733972°E / 32.6888972; 35.5733972
District Northern
Council Emek HaYarden
Affiliation Kibbutz Movement
Founded September 1927
Founded by Austrian and German immigrants
Population (2014)[1] 553
Website www.betzera.org.il

Beit Zera (Hebrew: בֵּית זֶרַע, lit. House of Seed)[2] is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee, it falls under the jurisdiction of Emek HaYarden Regional Council. In 2014 it had a population of 553.

History

In 1920 pioneers from Degania Alef founded kibbutz Degania Gimel south of Degania Bet at the site of the future kibbutz Beit Zera.[2] Separately, another group of Blau-Weiss pioneers from Germany and Austria, who had prepared for their task at the Markenhof Farm from southwest Germany near Freiburg, was established in 1921 in Petah Tikva.[3] In 1922 Degania Gimel was disbanded and its residents moved to the Jezreel Valley where they founded kibbutz Ginegar. In 1926 the Markenhof group moved to the Galilee and settled at Umm Juni,[3] the place where Degania Alef once started from at the end of 1909. In 1927 the huts at Umm Juni were destroyed by an earthquake and the group moved in September 1927 to the old Degania Gimel site, where they established a new, permanent kibbutz settlement which they called Kfar Nathan.[3][4][5]

In 1947 Beit Zera had a population of 500.[6] During the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, the villagers continued their agricultural work despite shelling from Syrian and Iraqi troops as well as from the Arab Legion.[6]

References

  1. 2014 populations Israel Central Bureau of Statistics
  2. 1 2 Etan Bloom (2011). Arthur Ruppin and the Production of Pre-Israeli Culture. Studies in Jewish History and Culture (31). Leiden: Brill. p. 206. ISBN 978-90-04-20379-2. Retrieved 9 January 2016. As the number of members in the first Degania increased, they decided to divide the group and its lands into two groups and established Degania B. Later they established a third group, Degania C (degania gimel), which later became Kibbutz Beit Zera (meaning in Hebrew: the house of seed/semen). (Footnote 247, p 206)
  3. 1 2 3 Beit Zera - Kibbutz Labour Movement (Hebrew)
  4. Markenhof Glasmalerei-Entwürfe von Friedrich Adler und die ausführenden Glaskunstanstalten Gesellschaft für Geschichte und Gedenken (German)
  5. Markenhof Farm Blau-Weiss (German)
  6. 1 2 Jewish National Fund (1949). Jewish Villages in Israel. Jerusalem: Hamadpis Liphshitz Press. p. 92.

External links

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