Life in Kibutz Dan--Difficulties and Rewards
By VICTOR M. BIENSTOCK
Vice President and Editor JTA
(Copyright 1970, JTA, Inc.)
KIBUTZ DAN—This settlement
in the northernmost tip of the
Upper Galilee was established 31
years ago in a night operation car-
ried out with military precision and
it has been on the firing line ever
since. It had a respite for nearly
three years when the Israeli
Army's capture of the Golan
Hungary, Romania and Tunisia,
80 in all including small children.
They came to Palestine in the
1930s and worked at Kfar Saba,
training and preparing for the
day when they could establish
their own kibutz. That day came
in 1939 when the Keren Kayemeth
offered them a tract of land in
the narrow finger of the Upper
Galilee pinched between the
Syrian and Lebanese borders
north of the malaria-infested
Huleh marshes.
One of them was Elimelech
source of water for Jewish set-
tlements to the south. Isolated
and the target of frequent attack,
suffering from shortage of man-
power, lack of arable land and
capital for development, the
settlers hung on grimly.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, July 31, 1970-11
got a little bit older, they wanted
to have better housing and better
food and clothing. And they could
With every invitation order of
afford it because the kibutz was
Wedding, Bar-Mitzvo, Shower etc.
better off. So there has been a new
tendency to make an easier life
but not at the cost of losing our
principles. We want to make our
life more comfortable. And it is
being done. But there is a certain
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amount of danger in this because
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if you start to improve the com-
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forts of life, it can lead you out
of the kibutz because out of the
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kibutz you have more chances. But
the members are faithful to our
way of life and they remain."
•
The generation gap is not an un- :
known problem to the people of • Largest Selection of Fine •
Dan. The village leaders stress the :
American & Imported :
uni ue relationship between par- •
q
ents and children here but admit
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there is a restlessness among the •
younger generation. There is, con- :
•
cedes Horowitz, "among the youth •
EVERYDAY
•
of Dan, as in the rest of the world, •
a tendency to rebel against the :
parents' way of life. We feel some •
•
of that in this country and in the :
kibutz movement. Some of our •
•
•
kids say, for example: 'why should :
•
we continue the way of life of our • • larallable in natural or Madura
rappe
parents only because we were born •
here? Let us choose our own way.' •
•
'BUY THE BOX'
•
And some do it, not a high per- •
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centage, luckily. There is a certain • • aP•dy ONLY
• 'w incl. •
tendency on the part of the youth
of the kibutz to search fer another
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way of life out of the kibutz. I hope •
•
it is a transitional phase — but 1
TOBACCONIST
•
•
cannot prophesy."
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When World War II came, nearly
a quarter of the settlement's man-
power went into the British Army.
Its bitterest testing time came n
the War of Liberation in 1948 when
Heights in the Six-Day War elimi-
it was under attack on three sides
nated the threat from the Syrian
and was unmercifully blasted by
border less than a mile away. The
artillery and had to repulse wave
Syrian gunners were so close, a Horowitz, now curator of the Us- after wave of attacks. A new era
Dan resident recalls, "that they sishkin House at Kibutz Dan, an opened for the settlement, how-
could spit into our windows." The impressive building which houses ever, witl1 the end of the war and
respite ended when Arab terrorists a record of the flora and fauna of the establishment of the Jewish
seized control from a helpless the Huleh marshes before they state. More land became available.
Beirut regime of the entire south- were drained and converted into There was Government aid in de-
eastern area of Lebanon and con- lush farmlands. Horowit2, short, veloping an adequate water supply
verted the hitherto tranquil border dark and intense, described the for the settlement's apple and
into a war zone. Kibutz Dan, with- beginnings of the kibutz and the citrus orchards and its mixed agri-
in walking distance of the Leba- background of its founders.
culture and the kibutz was able
nese frontier, found itself under
to build safe new bomb shelters
"We were members of a youth
enemy attack once again.
movement, the Hashomer Hazair," for protection from the frequent
Standing on the terrace of the he explained. "We were converted Syrian artillery attacks from the
Ussishkin House on a hot after- to kibutz life and to agriculture Golan Heights.
noon, looking westward at the dark when we were youngsters in Pc-
The threat from Syria ended in
hills of Lebanon rising so close by. land. We talked Hebrew among 1967 with the Six-Day War when
it is hard to believe that the ourselves. We were trained for the Israeli Army captured the
serenity of the day is so deceptive life in the kibutz. We had our pur- Golan Heights. For nearly three
and that from these hills come the pose. We knew exactly what we years the people of Dan luxuriated
vicious Katyusha rockets, mortar wanted to do. We came to Palestine in the unfamiliar luxury of quiet
shells, machine-gun fire and mine- and we went to the farms. Capi- nights and a sense of security. The
laying terrorists. But there are the talists who came to Palestine settlement grew and prospered. It
visible signs in the village—here settled in Tel Aviv or Haifa. If it made plans to expand its new
the newly patched roof of a house hadn't been for the kibutz move- plastics well-covering industry. But
that had been hit, the raw newness ment, Israel today would be from a new threat developed. The Leba-
of some of the fences on the peri- Tel Aviv to Haifa."
Custom Blended Pipe Tobacco •
•
nese border, only a few kilometers
•
•
meter of the settlement, the elect.
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A visitor from another Galilee to the west, after 20 years of tran
Nearly 150,000 Wayne-Oakland- •
ric cables you have to step over
in Green - 8 Shopping Center
quility,
erupted
in
warlike
activi-
Macomb residents volunteer each •
• Onen Evenings and Sundays •
that illuminate the fence area to kibutz pointed out that the kibutz- ties. And Dan once again knew M
•
expose infiltrators attempting to niks had always asked for the most
year to conduct the United Founda- •
PACKAGE LIQUOR DEALER
slip through , the experiences re. difficult assignments. Kibutz groups rockets and mortar shells, mines tion Torch Drive.
Ciosessmoemeweseese(
counted by the members of the in training would refuse "easy" and bullets.
locations near the cities, he said,
But life goes on and the village
kibutz.
and would insist on getting the elders — the elected committees
It is war in the midst of peace outlying areas. "There was a corn- which run all the kibutz activities
or, more correctly, peace in the petition among them for the dan-
—deal with the many problems be-
midst of war. The presence of the ger spots," he recalled.
setting every village and town to-
enemy is neverg
Because
the
British
mandate
day — and with a few others it
presence is not permitted to in-
hibit the life and growth of the regime banned new Jewish settle shares with the entire kibutz move-
ments
except
in
certain
specified
ment if not with all farm areas.
settlement or to restrict its activi-
areas. Kibutz Dan was established ' Farming—village life—is a hard
ties. Some 50 young men of the
"where an expert's presence is required
settlement's total population of 450 in the dead of the night. A small life and pioneering of the type the
party of pioneers, carrying a port- settlers of Dan took is doubly so.
men, women and children are
and perfection is a must"
away in service with the Army, able stockade and a prefabricated Now, with a new generation com-
Patios — Pools — Garden
but those remaining stand guard, watch tower moved into the arez ing to the fore, Dan finds itself
more
concerned
with
the
ameni-
Houses — Enclosures and
cultivate the fields, operate the under cover of darkness. By dawn
village industries, take care of the they were entrenched. The stock- ties of life and with the need to
courtyards
children and carry out a full pro- ade was in position to protect the keep its youth from leaving the
kibutz site from attackers and a settlement for the attractions of
gram of cultural activities.
sentry in the newly erected watch
The war and the grim reality tower was scanning the surround- the cities.
"There is a tendency to improve
are the daily facts of life in ings, ready to sound the alert.
• Difficult weed control • problems — Aquatic, Soil
the life of the people and we cer-
Kibutz Dan and in every settle-
• Industrial Weed Control • Shrub or
sterilization
Then barracks and other facili- tainly do it," explains Horowitz.
ment that abuts Fatahland—the
planting bed weed control
ties were built and gradually all "In the first years of the settle-
area of Lebanon surrendered to
its members were brought to- ment, no one cared about comfort.
the terrorists. It is hard to be-
Design and construction for the person
gether in the new kibutz. But for We were concerned to create a
lieve in Dan on a somnolent
years,
the existence of Kibutz new society and improve relations
who desires a total concept
afternoon that at any moment a
between
people,
to
develop
the
Dan hung in the balance despite
Katyusha rocket may come
communal farm and the communal
its
importance
to
the
Yishub
as
bursting into the village. You
30740 W. 12 Mile Rd.
Phone
proof that the Jews had settled
property. No one then cared about
have a different impression of
himself or thought about property.
the area and had full claim to
Farmington
the threat and the menace stand-
Robert Cohn
the Huleh Valley which subse- But, in time, as the standard of
ing here than you receive abroad,
quently became an important living was raised and the people
or even in Jerusalem reading
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the official communiques.
It is probably true that the ter-
rorist movement represents no
great military threat to Israel and
is more of a nuisance than any
thing else, but what in general
terms may be only a nuisance, is
much more than that in the , spe-
cifics of a settlement under fire.
It was not so hard standing here
in Kibutz Dan to understand why
the settlers in the north cheered
so lustily last May when an Israeli
Army punitive expedition entered
Fatahland and why there was such
great disappointment that it did
not remain there to clean up the
territory and interdict it to the
terrorists.
Kibutz Dan is a Hashomer Hazair
settlement—established and popu-
lated by men and women sharing
a common ideology and beliefs.
Its original settlers came to what
was then Palestine out of ideologi-
cal conviction and Zionist fervor,
prepared and conditioned to toil
and suffer to create according to
their beliefs. Because of this ideol-
ogy, the settlement probably has a
greater inner strength and stamina
to stand up to the grinding pres-
sures upon it.
The original settlers of Dan
were immigrants from Poland,
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