Merhavia
32.60527777777835.307777777778Koordinaten: 32 ° 36 'N, 35 ° 18'
Merchawia (Hebrew מרחביה, also: Merchavia or Merhavia ) is located in the eastern Jezreel Valley in northern Israel. The name ( German as " God widths " ) is inspired by Psalm 118.5. It started as one of the first agricultural settlement projects in Palestine, was the first Jewish village in the Jezreel Valley and is now a kibbutz.
Yehoshua Hankin bought in 1909, among other land around the former Arab village of Pola. Significant support came from Hankin at his local land purchases by Arthur Ruppin and the Zionist movement.
According to plans, proposed at the 6th Zionist Congress in 1903, (only partially successful) had been tested in 1910 in Merchawia, was founded on January 24, 1911, based on the ideas of sociologist and economist Franz Oppenheimer a Siedlungsgenossenschaft, but after the First World War broke up again. In parallel, formed a Kwutza, a kind of socialist labor collective.
On May 25, 1911 came to a clash between Arabs and Jews on the Merchawias fields: The Jewish Guardian Mordechai Yigal killed after he had been attacked, one Arab. Hundreds of Arabs invaded then, supported by Turkish police, into the town, twelve settlers were arrested and spent about a year in prison in Akko.
After the British had fought under Edmund Allenby, the armed forces of the Central Powers on 31 October and 7 November 1917 at the south of Palestine, the German Asia Corps withdrew its units of the 1st Battalion Royal Bavarian Flying in the North, including by Merchawia, back. Prior to between December 1917 and April 1918 further advancing British forces, the air squadrons were moved to what is now Syria.
From 1921 to 1923 he lived and Golda Meyerson worked with her husband Morris in the former collective farm. She later became known worldwide as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
1923 was also a settlement of private sector forming individual farmers ( moshav Owdim ); there was a women's cooperative ( Alamot ) and an agricultural experiment station.
In 1929 the Hashomer Hatzair kibbutz settlement as new. In today's grounds are archeological remains of a Crusader castle, a youth center and educational institutions in 1913, designed by Alex Baerwald Great Court.
Since 1941 lives and works in the writer Tuvia Rübner Merchawia. His autobiography (2004) bears the title because: A long short life - from Bratislava to Merchavia.