11111111111111.111r• ■ ••1111111111W
1111111.111111.
91 1111.-
,J
Page 18—Supplement to The Jewish Sews—arch
16. 973
M
From Paucity
To Plenty
.
the
Cottler
Cohen
Families
of the
In 1948, Israel stood on the brink of economic dis-
aster. There was simply not enough food to feed the
tens of thousands of new immigrants arriving each day.
There was not enough hard currency with which to
buy the food from other countries. The food that existed
was rationed and a child's treat was something called
Tomato Jam. Sweets were just not available.
Today, in the year when Israel celebrates its 25th
Anniversary, the agricultural picture has changed radi-
cally. Nearly every agricultural commodity imaginable
is grown within the borders of this New Jersey-sized
country. Agriculture has become a prime export in-
dustry. Wheat and beef and sugar are still cheaper
if imported, and only the bargain rates offered by for-
eign sellers prevent the Israelis from reaching self-suf-
ficiency in these areas, too.
In the 4th Century, CE, during the Roman con-
quest, the Jews were scattered from their homes and
villages along the eastern Mediterranean shores. Wher-
ever they wandered they were subjected to periodic
persecution. As they fled one location to another, agri-
culture. as a way of life, was impossible. Often, by law,
they could not acquire land. They took up other trades
—tailoring. medicine. teaching, handicrafts, economics
—those skills they could carry in their hands, on their
backs, or in their heads. They were no longer a people
of peasants or cultivators of land.
Rebirth of the Jewish homeland began about the
middle of the last century. Small groups arrived in
Palestine from eastern Europe—Hungary, Russia, etc.
They bought land when they could, and by 1900 there
were some 22 new settled Jewish villages.
May 14, 1948, was the beginning of a new era of
transformation in agriculture for the Jewish people.
Congratulate
ISRAEL
ON ITS
25th
Anniversary
The Great Agricultural Offensive
Where there were 300 Jewish rural villages at the
end of 1948, there are now over 1,000. In 1948, the cul-
tivated area in Israel amounted to 400,000 acres,
75.000 of them irrigated: in 1972 it was 1.028,000 acres,
of which 480.000 were irrigated.
But opening new land to new people, by itself, was
not a panacea: the problems were manifold and diffictilt.
Beginning in the early 1950s, masses of immigrants,
unschooled in agriculture. physically weakened from
their war-torn years in Europe, some old, some mere
children, and many from the crowded ghettos of major
cities, settled and tried to adjust to strange rural vil-
lages operated under a unique communal structure.
But adjust they did.
The older policy of the kibutz proved less attractive
as new immigrants arrived. The moshav, with its em-
phasis on individual family living and great flexibility
in the scope and extent of cooperation proved to be
generally more suitable for the average newcomer.
The past quarter century has been a striking develop-
ment in the moshav type of village which has grown in
munber from 91 before 1948 to nearly 400 today. The
number of kibutzirn, on the other hand, only doubled
during the same period.
The growth of the rural villages, kibutz, moshav,
or one of the other forms of rural settlement, reflected
the success of the skillfully planned and executed agri-
cultural projects begun in the early 1950s.
Now 25 years later, Israel can match, if not out-
pace. most agrarian countries throughout the world. In
terms of knowhow, standards of mechanization and
organization, agriculture is one of the most progressive
sectors of Israel's economy,