Degania Alef דגניה א' | |
|---|---|
 Part of the 1912 compound | |
  Degania Alef  Degania Alef | |
| Coordinates:32°42′29″N35°34′29″E / 32.70806°N 35.57472°E /32.70806; 35.57472 | |
| Country |  Israel |
| District | Northern |
| Council | Emek HaYarden |
| Affiliation | Kibbutz Movement |
| Founded | 1910, after first beginnings in 1909 |
| Founded by | Labor Zionists |
| Population (2022)[1] | 525 |
| Website | degania |
Degania Alef (Hebrew:דגניה א',Hebrew pronunciation:['dɡanja'alef]) is akibbutz in northern Israel. The Jewish communal settlement (kvutza) was founded in 1910, making it the earliestLabor Zionist farming commune in theLand of Israel. Its status as "the mother of all kibbutzim" is sometimes contested based on a later distinction made between the smallerkvutza, applying to Degania in its beginnings, and the largerkibbutz.
It falls under the jurisdiction of theEmek HaYarden (Jordan Valley) Regional Council. Degania Alef and its neighborDegania Bet both lie south of the southern shore of theSea of Galilee and along theJordan River. As of 2022 it had a population of 525.[1]
Degania means "cornflower"[2] and is derived from דגןdagán, meaning "grain".[3] After the first phase at Umm Junieh, the group and its settlement was simply calledDegania,Alef being added only after the establishment of the associated kibbutzim ofDegania Bet andGimel in 1920.Alef,bet andgimel are the first letters of theHebrew alphabet and carry thenumerical values 1, 2 and 3.
According to the 1881Survey of Western Palestine, Umm Junieh was possibly the place called Union, or Homonœa, byJosephus (Vita, 54).[4][5]
TheMuslim village calledUmm Junieh[6] is mentioned during the LateOttoman period (late 19th century) at the site from which the first Jewish settlers would start establishing their community in 1909–1910. A map fromNapoleon's invasion of 1799 byPierre Jacotin showed the place as ruined.[7]Umm Junieh was just by the ancient bridge known in Arabic asJisr es-Sidd, which was also noted as ruined by Jacotin.[7]
In 1875,Victor Guérin observed the village ofOumm Djouneh, sitting on a hill east of theriver Jordan.[8] In 1881, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine (SWP) described the place, cited asUmm Junieh, as a stone andadobe village, on the east side of the river Jordan, on the top of the eastern bank of the river. It contained about 250 Muslim inhabitants. All the plain around was arable soil; no trees. A mill was worked at the village.[9] A population list from about 1887 showed thatUmm Juny had about 330 inhabitants, allMuslim.[10]
Degania (later Degania Alef) was the firstkvutza-type agricultural settlement established byZionist pioneers of the NewYishuv underOttoman rule. The location was south-west of theSea of Galilee, at a place known in Arabic asUmm Junieh or Umm Juni, within the administrative Ottoman area ofAcre Sanjak. It was founded in 1910 by a group of eight men and one woman, the "[labour] conquest group", followed at the end of the same year by what would become the permanent settlers group (ten men and two women).
In June 1912, the group moved from the mud huts and wooden shack of Umm Juni to the new stone-built compound at its permanent location.[11] That is at the place where theJordan River emerges from the Sea of Galilee and therefore had the Arabic name Bab al-Tumm, "Gate of the Mouth".[11][12]
The poetRachel Bluwstein, the "prophet of labor"A. D. Gordon, and paramilitary commander and leading ZionistJoseph Trumpeldor all worked at Degania Alef. Zionist pioneer and future Israeli politicianYosef Baratz was among the founders of Degania Alef. On June 5, 1912, he married and started the first family. His first child, Gideon Baratz (1913–1988), who was born in Degania Alef,[13] was the first child born in a Jewish collective community inPalestine.[14][verification needed] The second child to be born in Degania Alef was the prominent Israeli general and politicianMoshe Dayan. Dayan was named afterMoshe Barsky, a member of Degania Alef who was the first kibbutz member killed in an Arab attack.[15] Barsky was killed in November 1913. He was alone in thekibbutz fields when he was shot in the back and left for dead by Arab marauders.[16]
In 1920 two new kibbutzim,Degania Bet andDegania Gimel, were established to the south of what consequently became Degania Alef or Aleph.[17]
By 1947 Degania Alef had a population of 380.
On May 20, 1948, during theBattles of the Kinarot Valley, in one of the first battles of the1948 Arab–Israeli War, the residents of Degania Alef and Bet, assisted by a small number of military personnel, repelled a Syrian attack and succeeded in halting the advance of theSyrian army into theJordan Valley.[17] During the attack Degania Alef was completely destroyed by the Syrian army.[18] According to a 1949 book by theJewish National Fund, the village was destroyed following attacks on the neighboring kibbutzim ofSha'ar HaGolan andMasada. The settlers resisted, however, and launched a counter-attack which helped to recover the neighboring settlements. Reconstruction started almost immediately.[3]
In 2007, Degania Alef moved to undergoprivatisation.[19] Instead of assigned jobs and equal pay under the former communal economy, the reorganisation requires members to find employment, live on their income, and allows them to own their homes, but still offers a form of a social "safety net" supplement for members whose livelihood is inadequate to meet their expenses. This move to privatisation was chronicled in Yitzhak Rubin's 2008 documentary,Degania: The First Kibbutz Fights Its Last Battle.
In 1981, Kvutza Degania Alef was awarded theIsrael Prize, for its special contribution to society and the State in social pioneering.[20]
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