THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, October 6, 1918 53
Arad: From Desert to City
By GIDEON SAPIR
Jewish National Fund
- JERUSALEM — The
higher the sun climbed in
the sky, the slower their
pace. They were a small
band of Israelite soldiers,
born in the Sinai: Their
commanders were older,
having been born in Egypt
under Pharaoh.
Sweat rolled down their
s but they continued
hing north toward the
rim Pass — to the land
which had been promised to
their forefathers. For 10
years they had stood from
afar, looking longingly at
their land, but each time
they pleaded with Moshe,
their leader, for permission
to enter, he answered that
the time was not yet right.
But their patience ran out,
• and they decided to go on
their own.
. Their weapons were few.
Some had been taken from
Egypt many years before;
others had been captured
from the Amelekites, who
often attacked their
encampment in the desert.
The road was long and ran
up the mountainside.
-
No sooner did they
reach the top, exhausted
from their long trek, then
the King of Arad and his
Canaanite warriors spot-
ted them. On the wide
plateau, the terrain was
flat and stark. There
wasn't a tree to hide be-
hind or a bush to provide
cover for the Israelite
soldiers; for the next sev-
eral hours they fought -a
losing battle against a
stronger enemy. Most
were killed.
Years later, when Joshua
led the people of Israel into
the land of Canaan, the area
of Arad was given to the de-
scendants of Moshe's fam-
ily.
During Turkish rule, the
people of Israel were
thwarted at every turn.
When it became clear that
they would find no help
from the Turks, the Jews of
-Israel began to fill the ranks
of the British Army. After
World War I, the Jewish
soldiers asked to settle a
stretch of land in the south,
to fulfill a promise the
British made to them. Since
the British, who now ruled
the land, were in no hurry to
keep their end of the bar-
gain, a group of young
Jewish settlers decided not
to wait. The group, which
included Yitzhak Ben-Zvi
(who would later become
President of Israel) and his
wife, Rachel, mounted their
horses , and took off for the
proposed settlement gte.
While they searched for •
water in the desert
region, fresh water was
brought in from six miles
away. The search was
futile. Soon the last bag of
beans was empty and the
last can of oil ran dry. The
sad and disappointed
young people climbed
into their wagons and left .
Arad.
Now, Arad is a living,
thriving city where young
families have come to build
their lives in the midst of
the desert, Here, the origi-
nal settlers gathered re-
cently to be inscribed by the
city council in the Jewish
National Fund's Golden
Book, in recognition of their
persistence and dedication
so many years ago.
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