Thread by @JachnunEmpire

Things to remember when reading this thread:

1) This was 80-100 years ago, coincided with WW1, and a rather drastic change in rule over the region (Ottoman to British). As well similar rifts like this existed among other people during that time.

We’ve become much better (Israeli society as a whole), progressed and improved since then.

2) Pointing out historical injustices does not mean I’m suddenly an antizionist or think we shouldn’t have self determination over our historical homeland.

Highlighting these grievances is meant to provide more understanding and insight into underlying emotions that may still exist today. It is not for antisemites and antizionists to hijack for their narrative.

Now without further delay...

The Yemenite Jewish pioneers of the Kinneret THREAD:

In 1911 a group of Yemeni Jews consisting of a few dozen families from Shar’ab picked up their goods and came to the Promised Land.

This thread focuses on the challenges and obstacles faced by one branch of this group who set up their homes beside the Kinneret.

The connection of the Jews of Yemen to the land of Israel was continuous throughout the centuries characterized by migration back and forth.

In the early years of the 20th century there were a few thousand Jews from Yemen who lived in cities like Jerusalem, Jaffa, Tiberias, Tzfat/Safed. Some others lived in Rehovot, Zichron Ya’akov, and Hadera who worked mainly in agriculture.

The “office of the land of Israel”, or Israel Office, was an acting arm of the World Zionist Organization in the land of Israel. It was responsible in promoting planning, financing and managing the activity there.

Those activities included buying land, building cities and agriculture settlements, directing immigrants to the different places and helping provide guidance for activities required. They created agricultural schools and farms, one of their projects was the Kinneret Farm.

The waves of immigrants who came from the east and west required building of financial, industrial, and agricultural infrastructures. Land was bought in the centre and in the north. Settlements were created and there was a need for a workforce.

It became popular to hire Arab workers but this also conflicted with the ideology the WZO had of using Jewish labour. Following a positive experience that the farmers of the new agricultural villages had with the work of Yemeni Jews the leaders decided to encourage more to come.

They were the “embodiment of the natural worker” (in the terms of the leaders). They felt that Yemeni Jews could replace both the Arab workers and the secular elitists who they had to pay more for the labour.

In 1910 a Russian born Jew named Shmuel Yavnieli was selected for a mission to Yemen to try and encourage Yemeni Jews to come to the Promised Land in larger numbers.

His mission succeeded above all expectations. Stories in Yemen travelled about the Jew from the Holy Land with his white donkey (what Yavnieli rode on while travelling). They talked about a return to Zion which triggered the imagination of many.

Thousands of Jews left their homes, gathered their families, and started the long and difficult journey to Israel. However, the WZO was looking to receive a young workforce.

Instead the result was thousands of Jews who came with their families — young, old, infants, healthy and sick with the proper infrastructure to receive them still not in place.
In 1911 the group of Jews from Shar’ab arrived in Israel after a long journey which lasted months.

They sold their houses and started a 3 week journey on foot to Aden in order to take a ship to Israel. Along the way they were hijacked by different robbers and were forced to pay bribes in order to be able to continue.

After a few months in Aden they went by boat to Suez in Egypt and from there continued to Jaffa. A strong storm prevented them from landing on shore so they continued to Haifa. Tired and broke they met farmers who offered them work in Hadera where they stayed until 1912.

The conditions in Hadera were awful. They worked long hours for extremely low wages that was not enough to support them. They lived in huts and dilapidated warehouses which had rats and mice along with experiencing extreme heat during summer and the freezing cold in winter.

When they complained about the inhumane conditions they were asked by members of “The Young Guard” (HaShomer HaTzair) if they were interested in moving to the Galilee, where they’d have land to cultivate and houses to live in.

The group agreed and made their way to the southwest bank of the Kinneret. When they arrived in 1912 there were already a number of agricultural settlements that had been created a few years earlier.

The “Kinneret Farm” was established in 1908 by the Israel Office on land purchased by the JNF. It was built as a spot for agricultural training. Some of the members of the group of Yemeni Jews separated off in an attempt to settle Yavniel which was a few kilometres west.

The others, 14 families (approx 45 people) decided to stay. Since they had no shelter they were offered to live temporarily in the structure which housed the water pump motor. It contained two service rooms which is where the 14 families agreed to move into.

They built an additional 5 mud huts nearby to accommodate them all and prepared themselves for the routine activity of work and Torah study which they were accustomed to in Yemen.

According to Avraham Herzfeld, who became head of the Agricultural Centre, at the beginning the group owned a pair of cows, a carriage, two donkeys, a plow, and a horse all purchased from the Agricultural Centre.

The area was muddy and contained a lot of mosquitoes which carried pathogens that were responsible for substantial illnesses and death among members of the group. There was an urgent need to dry it.

They were short on the proper tools but through meticulous hard work, of which required removing the long tough roots of the jujube trees which grew all over, they succeeded. They wound up growing vegetables that were sold throughout the area and even as far as Damascus.

A couple years passed and they were still living in the 2 room + 5 hut setup from when they first arrived. In November 1914 the group sent a letter to Arthur Rupin, the head of Israel office, asking for help since promises hadn’t been fulfilled.

5 of the 10 houses that were promised were built. The rest weren’t under the claim of financial shortage due to WW1. The Yemeni Jews paid monthly rent for the 5 buildings that were built. A letter with the rates was sent to the Israel office by a representative.

The lots they received were not enough to support the families. Consequently some of them found additional work building roads, as guards in the British Army, and in the power station in Naharayim that was located a few dozen kilometers south.

In 1913 a group of Jews from Europe who called themselves “Shlishiyat Hayahad” (United Three) arrived at the Kinneret Farm. Within a short time the group grew to include three women and thirteen men (altogether a group of sixteen that was called ‘Kvutzat Kinneret’).

At the beginning, relations between the Yemeni group and the group of Kvutzat Kinneret were acceptable. There were, according to some witnesses, instances of good neighbourly relations and common help between individuals.

From 1918 things shifted and conflicts regarding land and water started. Adding to that was a rejection, on the part of ‘Kvutzat Kinneret’, to having the Yemeni Jews in the area. This was based, among other things, that there was a “cultural difference” between them.

The difference was that the Yemeni Jews were extremely religious and the Kvutzat Kinneret were a secular socialist group. The conflict reached to a point where the water supply to the fields and sometimes to the houses of the group of the Yemeni Jews was cut intentionally.

Meanwhile the rabbi of the Yemeni group, Rabbi David Ben Israel, who volunteered to live in one of the two small rooms in the “house of the motor”, where the water pump was located, was still there in February 1923 eleven years from when he arrived to Kinneret.

He lived there in a building that was not suited for living, with the continuous noise of the pump, trying to raise his family.  Adding to these hardships, he suffered from the death of a daughter who fell off the building’s ladder.

In February 26th 1923 he sent a touching letter to the Zionist Management asking for help.

On October 8th  1923, 11 years after they arrived to Kinneret, the Yemeni Jews sent a letter to the Zionist management urging it to complete building the houses that were promised to them.

On October 31st 1923 ‘Kvutzat Kinneret’ sent a telegram to the Department of Settlement complaining about the building of houses for the Jewish Yemenite group. These missing houses where promised to the Yemenite Jews a number of years before.

A response to this telegram was sent 3 weeks later. In it there is an order to stop the process. The reality of what happened is a bleak one.

Eventually they reached a stage where Kvutzat Kinneret had to decide where it was going to settle permanently. Two options were presented

1. 15km west where Ashdot Ya’akov is today
2. On the hill where they were currently located

After strong continuous pressure by the Kvutzat Kinneret and lobbies for their cause the decision of the Settlement Department of the Israel office headed by Arthur Rupin chose to keep them at the hill which is where they preferred.

The Jewish Yemenite group arrived to Kinneret in the spring of 1912, almost a year before Kvutzat Kinneret. They succeeded, despite all odds, to sell their agricultural products in the area and as far as Damascus, and to raise a new generation.

In spite of the fact that they were a much larger group and had already settled themselves in the area, they lost in the confrontation with Kvutzat Kinneret.

The clash between the groups continued until 1930 but, having no backup and no contacts, the Yemeni Jews were forced by the Israel Land Officials to leave and were sent for a new beginning in Marmorek beside Rehovot.

The decision to move the group from Kinneret did not come without controversy. Shmuel Dayan, a farmer and one of the Zionist leaders at that time, expressed his feelings regarding this issue.

I’ll end this thread with 2 things, a translation of a letter sent by Rabbi David ben Israel in 1928 to the WZO describing their experience, in detail, from the time they left Yemen until their eviction from the Kinneret.

And lastly a 3 part series of the personal retelling regarding a chance meetup between a member of the kibbutz and the daughter of one of the evicted Yemeni Jews.

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