The dawn of Kibbutz Lehavot-Haviva – Robino (Yehoshua Buchler ...

Biografisches Arbeitsmaterial Robert Büchler | Quelle 11
The dawn of Kibbutz Lehavot-Haviva – Robino (Yehoshua Buchler)
Early in the summer of 1949, as the Battles of the Independence war calmed down and the
tension in region decreased, re-awaken our idea to fulfill our goal – to build and establish a
kibbutz in memory of Haviva Reich: Kibbutz “Lehavot Haviva”.
Among the future founder were, in that stage, the members of “Garein (from Hebrew - small
group of people planing to found a new settlement, literally: seed) Lehavot Haviva” that
were situated in kibbutz Ma‘anit and as time passed, joined more members from a second
Garein Lehavot Haviva that came to Israel in the first half of 1949 and were temporarily situated
in kibbutz “Merhavia”. A total number of above 100 members of Garein Lehavot Haviva
came to Israel between the years 1948-1949 from Czechoslovakia.
The Goal – founding a kibbutz in name of Haviva Reich, close by to kibbutz Ma‘anit, where
she lived, became mature in our heart while still abroad, three years prior to the actual act of
establishing. Despite the fierce desire in the heart of the members of the Garein to build the
new kibbutz near kibbutz Ma‘anit, where Haviva lived, the settling department of the Jewish
Agency didn‘t saw at the same time a possibility nor need to build a new settlement in such
distant region, far from other Jewish populated areas, disconnected and in a such a close proximity
to Arab settlements. Only after fierce arguments and negotiations, the representatives
of the agency accepted our demands to build our own kibbutz. The agency‘s head representatives
demanded that we will build the kibbutz in the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, the
Kinneret, where kibbutz HaOn is situated now days, an area with very difficult security conditions.
I am still carrying in my mind memories of those tense and hard talks about this subject
with the Kibbutz HaArtzi (the one of main organization of the Kibbutzim) representatives
and demanded the proximity to Haviva‘s kibbutz. Finally, as a result of the cease-fire agreement
that was signed in Rhodes more territories that was so far in the hands of the Arabs,
among those territories was the “triangle” area that is very close to kibbutz Ma‘anit. Than,
after very loud and persistent demands from our side the settling department agreed that the
members of Garein Lehavot Haviva will establish a kibbutz as they demanded not far from
kibbutz Ma‘anit. The ground that has been selected was 10 km way form Ma‘anit in place of
a tiny Arab settlement named Hirbet Gazya which was evacuated in the beginning of the war.
The place was totally isolated with no road and any way to get in or out.

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From the moment we found out about the approval big plans and argument were held
about the day of settling. From the people in charge we demanded to show us the actual
place but they rejected the demand, I guess that because of lack of coordination with the
Ministry of Defense.
Despite the severe ban, at the end of august 1949, three members decided to go secretly
throw the army posts behind Ein-Shemer Army base (Sha‘ar Manashe of today) and try to
discover the place intended for settling. Shmuel Shtark, Tuvia Be‘eri and myself went out of
kibbutz Ma‘anit early in the morning, and began marching, before dawn, toward the intended
location, marked by the leaders of the settling movement on the map.
After few hours of marching in high thorny bushes we suddenly discovered near a dry seasonal
stream, between the trees, a few abandon structures covered with vegetation. In the
western part of the small settlement we found a natural water well with a big pump. As far
as we know, the original habitants of Hirbet Gazya, few tens in numbers, left their village in
the spring of 1948 and since than we were the first Israelis that managed to get there. The
place seemed distant and quite relatively to the tense atmosphere at that time in Israel. We
were impressed of the fresh air and the vast agriculture land. We were convinced that in this
place we can build a magnificent kibbutz. The intended ground were between two seasonal
streams and near the old Kakun railway station.We wondered around the field for a few
hours and just before the evening we where heading back to Ma‘anit.
At first we kept the story of the illegal-expedition to Hirbet Gazya as a secret but with time I
couldn‘t hold the secret and told it to a few close friends and described every thing we saw.
The story spread a lot of curiosity among my fellow Garein members, few others tried to get
thereby themselves but with no success, the Israeli army totally closed any passage to the
area. It is possible to presume that until the 19th October no one else has visited the area.
Earlier than that the Jewish Agency announced that the day of settling is set to the 20th October
1949.
All the Garein members were excited and involved with preparation. As the settling day came
closer the settling department gathered materials in the close by settlements: Parts of walls to
the wooden shakes, wooden boards and sacks of cement, prepared tractors and trucks.
On the day, Thursday the 20th October 1949, few days after the holiday of Sukkot, a few
bulldozers came out of the Ein-Shemer army base and began clearing out a path, behind the

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bulldozers slowly advanced a line of tractors and trucks loaded with building materials, wooden
boards, module parts of shakes, different tools and an electric generator.
Sited on the vehicles were the members of Garein Lehavot Haviva that helped forming the
newly built path.
After the completion of the path, residents of near by kibbutzim came to the intended
ground and helped preparing the land for construction and started building shakes and at
the same time came the other members of the Garein Lehavot Haviva from kibbutz Merhavia
and joined the works and the construction of the new kibbutz. It was known that the ceremony
for the birth of the new kibbutz will be held at the same day‘s afternoon and among
the participants are people from the Jewish agency, representatives of the Kibbutz HaArtzi,
representatives of other kibbutzim and parents and relatives of members of the kibbutz.
Among the speakers were the head of the settling department and the head of the local
council – Haim Kafri that was a close friend of Haviva Rich and many others.
The ceremony was impressive but only handful of Lehavot Haviva members participated,
most of us were still working in constructing structures meant for lodging and storage. As
the darkness came closer 4 newly built shakes were standing (although with no roof and
floor), temporary kitchen along side a ruined structure, a few tents (as one big tent was used
as a dinning room) and also along the night some members kept on working as an oil-lamps
providing illumination.
At the end of October 1949 Lehavot Haviva was a tiny and exposed settlement without
electricity and water, no shade and no roads and ways of accessing it. The contact with
the near by settlements was held via the fields toward kibbutz “Gan Shmuel” and kibbutz
Ma‘anit and via the faulty road that was built on the settling day. A fundamental change to
the road happened in the beginning of the next year‘s winter.
The winter of 1950 brought with it great quantities of rain and an unusual snow phenomenon.
The seasonal streams around the kibbutz were filled with water and flooded the whole area.
The kibbutz and his members were totally cut off and isolated for some time. Our chains
tractor sank deep in the mud and got stuck. The members of the kibbutz had to march to the
railway tracks and from there by foot to Hadera and other places to get supply.
The weather caused severe damage to the shakes and water penetrated to the temporary
dining room. The rainy and hard winter didn‘t allow organized continuation of the construc-

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tion. The members of the kibbutz were buzzy fixing and sealing up the cracks which the rain
penetrated.
Despite all the trouble, the moral among the kibbutz members was high. Almost every night
there were dancing until late at night, to a music provided by a manual gramophone as we
did not had electricity yet. When the rain ceased we made a road to the nearest Arab village,
Jalame west to the kibbutz and from Jalame it was possible to get to the main road that
went through the Arab villages of Baka el-Garbia and Jat and from there to Ma‘anit and
Hadera.
At the beginning of the spring of 1950 we found out that we are ordered to re-locate our
settlement and move to the tiny village Jalame that its inhabitants were expelled by the
Israeli army. The decision was made after discussion between the Ministry of Defense and the
Jewish Agency about ensuring the security of the region.
The members of the kibbutz were disappointed, we need to dissemble everything, we have
to built and to move it to the village Jalame that turned out, with no ceremonies and celebrations
to the new Lehavot Haviva at the end of the spring 1950. In this migration and
together with the members of our Garein from Merhavia there were 100 members of the
kibbutz. At the beginning almost all of us lived in the neglected and primitive structures left
by the Arabs. At the same time we went through a difficult experience: Most of the members
of our kibbutz had fallen ill with typhus and were hospitalized. It has turned out that the disease
spread mostly among the members who lived in the old and filthy Arab buildings. The
experience was a blow to the kibbutz members and delayed its development.
As was described here, kibbutz Lehavot Haviva was established twice. Today it is located in
the place, where was the village Jalame and instead of the village Gazya was founded a few
years later the moshav Sade-Yitzhak.
aus: 60 Jahre Kibbuz Lehavot Haviva (Original in hebräischer Sprache, Übersetzung ins Englische
von Omer Hannash), editiert von Amira Hagani, Lehavot Haviva 2009, S. 21-23.