Friday, December 19, 1980 25
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Determination of Cochin Immigrants
Turns Wasteland Into Successful Moshav
By JOAN SILBERSTEIN
United Jewish Appeal
They came with their To-
rah. They had nothing else.
Forty-eight families from
Cochin, India — traders,
shopkeepers, small
businessmen — came to
Nevateem in the empty
Negev desert in 1955 bear-
ing only scrolls of the Law in
shining silver cases.
These men and women
who had never farmed were
returning to the land — to
plant crops and build new
lives. Their initial goal was
simply to stay alive.
Since the time of Ab-
raham and the 12 Tribes
of ancient Israel, no one
had lived on the site of
Nevateem, no crops had
grown. The British offi-
cially designated the area
s "uninhabitable." In
±947, small groups of
courageous settlers
tested life in Nevateem.
Unable to develop a via-
ble community and to de-
fend themselves during
the War of Independence,
they fled. Nothing but a
few hovels remained.
It was to these deserted
houses with open holes for
windows and doors that the
Cochiners came. The
structures were roofless,
with sand two feet deep
covering the floors and
climbing the walls as if to
bury them. No one had set
foot in Nevateem for seven
years.
"Finally Levi Eshkol,
the prime minister,
gave up home. He said
that it would be better to
keep us all in some kind
of hotel than to invest any
more money in this set-
tlement.
"The government asked
us to leave the land, but our
parents refused. They loved
the land and they taught us
to love it too."
"Our parents wanted us
Zionism Series
on Israel TV
JERUSALEM (JTA) — A
19-part television series re-
counting the history of
Zionism will be broadcast
on Israel television begin-
ning Jan. 6.
According to officials of
the Israel Broadcasting
Authority, it is the largest
television production ever
undertaken in the country.
Titled "The Pillar of
Fire," the series was three
years in the making and
cost $1 million.
Kits Distributed
NEW YORK (JTA)
one million Hanuka kits
were distributed by the
Lubavitch movement to na-
tions on four continents, in-
cluding Israel, Australia
and South Africa, according
to a report by Rabbi Shmuel
Butman, director of the
Lubavitch Youth Organiza-
tion.
Each kit contained a
menora, 44 candles, a
brochure with the Hanuka
calendar and the laws and
blessings of the holiday.
to learn," says Shimon It-
zhak. "When they didn't
have food for themselves,
when the children were
needed to work and to earn
money, they made us go to
school. We went to agricul-
tural trade schools. When
we came out, we knew
something. We were 14, 15
years old and we took mat-
ters into our own hands.
"We planted cotton,
peanuts, onions, tomatoes.
We taught our fathers,
mothers and sisters what to
do. Everyone worked in the
fields, proving to the
authorities that all we
needed was will power and
water and the land would be
like gold.
"In 1960, five years
after we came, the first
crops were sold."
In 1962, with food on their
tables, the people of Moshav
Nevateem could afford to
begin construction of their
homes. Family by family,
they moved to individual
homes from the 24 square
meter huts where five, even
10, people lived together in
one room. There was still no
running water, no electric-
ity, no gas for cooking and
no telephones. _
The first orchards were
planted that same year, and
the following year the Na-
tional Carrier was put into
operation, a system of un-
derground pipes bringing
water from Lake Kinneret
hundreds of miles south to
the Negev Desert. Moshav
Navateem's orchards
flourished. Among the pro-
duce of the harvest were the
first apricots in the history
of modern Israel to be ex-
ported to Europe.
-
The moshav was con-
nected to the country's elec-
tric grid in 1965. For Daniel
and the other children
brought to Israel from In-
dia, it was the first time
they had electricity in their
homes. Daniel was 17 years
old.
Greenhouses were
built and the people of
Carter Offers
Saudis More F-15
WASHINGTON (JTA) —
The Carter Administration
has offered to begin deliv-
eries of 60 F-15 fighter
planes to Saudi Arabia in
January, a year ahead of
schedule, but without as-
surances that the combat
capabilities of the planes
would be enhanced by the
bomb racks and extra fuel
tanks that the Saudis want.
The State Department
said that the U.S. supply of
weapons to Saudi Arabia
and the increase of oil prices'
by Saudi Arabia for the sec-
ond time in three months,
made known Tuesday at an
organization of petroleum
exporting countries meet-
ing, are not related.
The offer of earlier deliv-
ery of the F-15s was made in
November by Gen. David
Jones, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff. The Saudis
have not accepted the offer.
He that will believe only
what he can fully com-
prehend, must have a very
long head or a very short
creed.
—Cohon
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Children of Nevateem were a driving force in the
development of the moshav founded by immigranis
from Cochin, India. The immigrants turned a near
wasteland into a several million-dollar-a-year ag-
ricultural moshay.
Nevateem entered the
flower growing business
in 1968. Within 10 years,
the business, was brining
in annual receipts of $1.5
million dollars.
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In 1975, 20 years after the
people from Cochin immig-
rated to Israel carrying
their Torah, the first tele-
phones were installed in the
homes of Nevateem. An in-
fant boy born during the
journey to Nevateem had
grown into a man of 20,
married, and was a father
himself.
Today, the economy of
Nevateem is based on
ground crops, greenhouse
flowers, and a growing poul-
try business started in 1979.
The original 48 families
have multiplied to 93. There
are 512 people in the corn-
munity, 250 of them under
the age of 18. In the 25 years
of Nevateem, no Cochiner
has left the moshav to live
elsewhere. No one has
moved to another town or
city, kibutz or moshay. No
one has left to live abroad.
Nevateem remains as one
extended family.
At the center of
Nevateem there is a
synagogue. When the Ark is
opened, there is not one To-
rah, but 10. The 10 Torahs
were carried one by one as
groups of Cochiners came to
Israel.
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