History

KIBBUTZ YIZRE'EL

In the summer of 1948, as the War of Independence battles raged on, the Palmach military headquarters decided to send several preparatory groups of young men and women to settle strategic border outposts. Fifty five members were chosen to man the outpost of Zarin – Yizreel. On August 20th, 1948, the settlement was officially proclaimed. In the beginning the young settlers lived in primitive conditions in the abandoned huts of the Arab village, Zarin. Their first task was defensive; to guard the settlement, day and night, against the repeated incursions of the Iraqi army stationed only a few meters south of the outpost.

In June, 1950, the settlers moved to the adjacent hilltop, where they began building a permanent communal settlement. As the years passed new youth movement graduates and other young Israelis joined the founding members. The harsh, demanding living conditions in the fledging kibbutz caused many people to abandon the idea of communal living, and they left. In fact, during the first eight years of existence, so many people left the kibbutz, that in 1956 its chance of survival was questioned.

In that year, the turning point occurred when a group of Habonim Youth Movement graduates from South Africa and Australia joined the kibbutz. Ever since then, Yizreel has absorbed new people from youth movements, together with individuals and families from Israel and overseas. The result is a multi-cultured population, in which the Anglo-Saxon element is one of its dominant features even today.

In 1967 members decided to abandon the traditional system whereby the children slept at night in the communal children's houses and allow them to sleep at home with their parents. In order to implement this decision, new larger houses including a children's bedroom had to be built, as well as new day-care units. This step attracted many families from other kibbutzim, who applied to join Yizreel. Today there is not a single kibbutz where the children sleep at night in the communal children's houses.

Kibbutz Yizreel members soon realized that they would not be able to survive with an economy based on agriculture alone. In July, 1968, it was decided to establish our first industry, in the old communal dining room; a factory which assembled electronic equipment. Subsequently problems in the electronics factory, including the collapse of the stock market, and the David Ballas embezzlement affair combined to cause a huge crisis in the mid 1980's. Over fifty members, including many leading figures, left the kibbutz. However, the long and winding road led to the growth of a prosperous industry, which is one of the main factors presently enabling the kibbutz to reach an annual income of millions of shekels, and allowing it to invest in the future of the community and its population.

The kibbutz today, is in essence, a rural Jewish community, originally based on socialist ideology and expressing the Judaism of its members in a unique way. It is an open question whether the first settlements were set up as communes because of ideological conviction or rather because of physical necessity, stemming from the harsh living conditions. Since its inauguration, the kibbutz has evolved and become less uniform, each kibbutz deciding for itself its particular ‘flavour’ and character. The uniqueness of the Israeli kibbutz is its democratic base. No members are forced to join, and all members are free to leave. The kibbutz idea celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010.

In general terms the kibbutz co-operative is based on collective ownership of all the means of production and of all the public and private physical structures and amenities.

Joint ownership means that all members have equal rights, both physical and economic. Mutual assistance is also one of the mainstays of the society. No one receives a wage or salary. Everyone receives a budgeted monthly allowance according to the number of people in the family, their ages and any specific needs they may have. The size of the allowance for each category of family members is set according to the economic plan of the kibbutz, decided at the beginning of each year.

Kibbutz Yizreel currently (2019) 290 members and another 30 candidates for membership – mostly sons and daughters of members. In addition there are 190 children, including 20 serving in the IDF (Israel Defence Corps), 20 parents of members and 34 temporary residents and lone soldiers. The total population is 555 people.

The kibbutz is an entire community, and therefore must cater for all the community’s needs: pre-school and school education, higher education, food, culture, health etc. Our members come from a wide variety of backgrounds; about 70% of the kibbutz members today are Israeli born. Others come from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. At the same time Israeli groups also connected with youth movements arrived and settled. In recent years Yizreel has absorbed five families from the Soviet bloc.

Our kibbutz is one of eight kibbutzim belonging to the Gilboa Regional Council, which also includes moshavim, Arab villages and new community housing projects. We are also very much involved with Partnership 2000.

The democratic nature of the kibbutz is protected through the organizational hierarchy of the society. The General Meeting is the highest body for decision making. Here every kibbutz member has an equal vote, providing that he/she chooses to exercise that right. Beneath the General Meeting there are executive bodies as well as a number of committees, which take most of the responsibility for the running of the kibbutz. In all, there are over 40 committees which meet either weekly or fortnightly, depending on their agenda.

Kibbutz life is not without its problems. For the individual, there can be the pressure of having to put the community before oneself (sometimes) and compromises have to be made to co-exist amicably.

The Kibbutz Movement is renowned for its education system. Today, all children up to the age of 16 sleep in their parent’s homes. When babies reach the age of three months, they are placed in a crèche, between the hours of 7.00 and 16.00, which allows the mother to return to work. The children grow up in a framework designed to cater for their specific needs, according to their age. They are cared for by trained personnel until they complete kindergarten, and upon reaching school age, they travel daily to a school in the area for their formal primary and secondary education.

The kibbutz economy is based on a variety of production branches, both in industry and agriculture. Many members work outside the kibbutz in a variety of professions, and their salaries are paid directly to the kibbutz.

Members work in teaching (primary, high school and at several of our universities and colleges), the various departments of our local hospital, social workers, and in hi-tech positions in industry and commercial enterprises.

Kibbutz agriculture is amongst the most advanced in the world, and although the Kibbutz Movement is only 3% of the Israeli population, the contribution is of a much higher percentage with regard to participation in the national economy, the defence forces and playing a part in the political scene.

Kibbutz Yizreel owns two factories, all situated on the kibbutz.

Maytronics: The manufacture of the leading “Dolphin” robot swimming pool cleaner exported to over 34 countries world wide. The development, assembly, marketing etc. are all done here at the kibbutz factory. Recently Maytronics has opened two additional divisions: pool safety (including pool alarms, and automatic pool covers) and pool water treatment Maytronics has 3 subsidiary companies marketing its products in USA, France and Australia. Maytronics was registered as a public company on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 2004.

Tamuz: A subcontractor for hi-tech companies, consisting of three divisions:
1. A sheet metalwork department mainly for the communications industry.
2. A cable assembly department specializing in semi-rigid cables.
3. The assembly of large medical and other hi-tech equipment.

Agriculture: includes dairy, field crops, olives for oil and a large almond orchard.

Dairy: A herd of 450 Israeli Holstein cows, produces over four and a half million liters of milk yearly. We also breed calves for meat.

Field Crops: 2,500 dunam (4 dunam = 1 acre) of irrigated summer crops - mainly industrial tomatoes, root vegetables and sweet corn, and 2,500 dunam of winter crops – mainly wheat.


Almond Orchard: Over 1200 dunam (30,000) trees, producing 160 tons of nuts each year, one of the biggest almond orchards in Israel. In addition we have a 150 dunam olive orchard for producing 30 tons of olive oil.

Gilboa Area:
Our kibbutz is very proud of our contribution to the Gilboa area:
 Factories and branches of the kibbutz offer work to many area residents.
 The Music Centre teaches nearly 250 students, adults and children, most of whom come from the surrounding settlements.
 Our Language Centre teaches English, French, Hebrew, Arabic and German.
 We have a very successful library, open to all.
 We employ youth from a nearby drug rehabilitation village .
 We sponsor and organize a cycling club at that village.
 We sponsor the swimming team of ILAN, Haifa (Israeli Foundation for the Handicapped)