Tirat Zvi ( he, טִירַת צְבִי, lit. ''Zvi Castle'') is a
religious
Religion is usually defined as a social-cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, tran ...
kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming ha ...
in the
Beit She'an Valley
The Beit She'an Valley ( he, בקעת בית שאן or he, עמק בית שאן) is a valley in Israel.
The valley lies within the Beit She'an rift, part of the Afro-Syrian Rift (Jordan Rift Valley), which opens westwards to the Harod Valley. ...
, ten kilometers south of the city of
Beit She'an
Beit She'an ( he, בֵּית שְׁאָן '), also Beth-shean, formerly Beisan ( ar, بيسان ), is a town in the Northern District of Israel. The town lies at the Beit She'an Valley about 120 m (394 feet) below sea level.
Beit She'an is b ...
,
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, just west of the
Jordan River
The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...
and the Israel-
Jordan
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...
border. It falls under the jurisdiction of
Valley of Springs Regional Council
Emek HaMa'ayanot Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית עמק המעיינות, ''Mo'atza Azorit Emek HaMa'ayanot'', lit. ''Valley of the Springs Regional Council'') is a regional council in the Northern District of Israel that encompa ...
. In it had a population of .
Etymology
Tirat Zvi means Zvi's Fort. It was named after Rabbi
Zvi Hirsch Kalischer
Zvi (Zwi) Hirsch Kalischer (24 March 1795 – 16 October 1874) was an Orthodox German rabbi who expressed views, from a religious perspective, in favour of the Jewish re-settlement of the Land of Israel, which predate Theodor Herzl and the Zionis ...
(1795-1874), one of the fathers of the
Zionist Movement
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
and a leader of
Hovevei Zion
Hovevei Zion ( he, חובבי ציון, lit. '' hose who areLovers of Zion''), also known as Hibbat Zion ( he, חיבת ציון), refers to a variety of organizations which were founded in 1881 in response to the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russia ...
, while the ''tira'' or "fort" refers to a two-story mud-brick structure purchased from the Arab landowner,
Musa al-Alami.
[History of Kibbutz Tirat Zvi](_blank)
Yorav
History
The kibbutz was founded on 30 June 1937 as part of the
Tower and Stockade settlement enterprise. The founders were Jews from
Germany,
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
and
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
and came from three groups:
Kvutza
Kvutza, kevutza or kevutzah ( "group") is a communal settlement among Jews, primarily in pre-state Israel, the word was used in reference to communal life. First there were ''kvutzot'' (plural of kvutza) in the sense of groups of young people with ...
t near
Petah Tikva
Petah Tikva ( he, פֶּתַח תִּקְוָה, , ), also known as ''Em HaMoshavot'' (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of ...
, Kvutzat Shahal near
Rehovot
Rehovot ( he, רְחוֹבוֹת ''Rəḥōvōt'', ar, رحوڤوت ''Reḥūfūt'') is a city in the Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of .
Etymology
Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu movement, ...
, and
Kfar Yavetz.
The Rodges group was named after the German village where the Religious Zionist
Hakhshara
Hakhshara ( he, הַכְשָׁרָה; also transliterated Hachshara or Hakhsharah) is a Hebrew word that literally means "preparation". The term is used for training programs and agricultural centres in Europe and elsewhere. At these centers Zioni ...
centre (agricultural farm preparing youth for ''
aliyah'', or resettlement in
Mandate Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 i ...
) was located through which many of the founders of Tirat Zvi had passed. Kvutzat Shahal was named after the founder of the
Mizrachi movement, Shmuel Chaim Landau (1892–1928), known by his Hebrew acronym "ShaChaL", or "lion".
The kibbutz was attacked on 28 February 1938 by an armed
Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, No ...
mob during the
Arab revolt
The Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية, ) or the Great Arab Revolt ( ar, الثورة العربية الكبرى, ) was a military uprising of Arab forces against the Ottoman Empire in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On t ...
. The attack was repelled with many casualties on both sides.
On 20 February 1948, before the neighboring Arab nations officially joined the
1948 Arab–Israeli War
The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...
, a battalion of the
Arab Liberation Army
The Arab Liberation Army (ALA; ar, جيش الإنقاذ العربي ''Jaysh al-Inqadh al-Arabi''), also translated as Arab Salvation Army, was an army of volunteers from Arab countries led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji. It fought on the Arab side in the ...
led by Muhammed Safa attacked Tirat Zvi. The Arabs were repelled, after 60 of the attackers were killed. One kibbutz member, Naftali Friedlander, was killed in the fighting.
The settlement of Tirat Zvi was established on the land of the now-depopulated villages of
al-Khunayzir and al-Zarra'a.
Climate
Tirat Zvi sits 220 meters below
sea level
Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised ...
. On 21 June 1942, it recorded the
highest daytime temperature in Asia (54 °C; 129.2 °F),
although the validity of this measurement has been questioned, and based on the published
thermograph data it seems to have been somewhere between 52.0 to 54.4 °C.
[ The record is questioned by Christopher C. Burt (one of the initiators of the WMO investigation into the now-disqualified El Azizia world record), who claims that the thermograph reading was incorrectly read and the correct reading is only 53°C, in which case Sulaibya in ]Kuwait
Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...
holds the record for highest temperature in Asia with 53.6°C.
Economy
The kibbutz operates a
meat processing factory, ''
Tiv'', which sells its products locally and abroad. Tirat Zvi is the largest date-palm grower in Israel, with 18,000 trees.
The kibbutz also has a
lulav
''Lulav'' (; he, לולב) is a closed frond of the date palm tree. It is one of the Four Species used during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. The other Species are the '' hadass'' (Myrtus, myrtle), '' aravah'' (willow), and '' etrog'' (citron). ...
business. Working with scientists from the
Volcani Institute, Tirat Zvi developed a method of preserving the palm fronds for several months, allowing them to be harvested in the spring and sold in the fall, for use on the holiday of
Sukkot
or ("Booths, Tabernacles")
, observedby = Jews, Samaritans, a few Protestant denominations, Messianic Jews, Semitic Neopagans
, type = Jewish, Samaritan
, begins = 15th day of Tishrei
, ends = 21st day of Tishrei ...
. In 2009, it produced 70,000 lulavs.
References
*Edna Margolis, Isidor Margolis, R. Cohen & J. Cohen, ''Jew and Arab on the Border: A story of Religious Pioneering'', Hapoel Hamizrachi of America, 1940, New York, Edited by Aaron Binnun.
External links
Official website (English)Hodaya's I-Face Project: Alice Eitan.For pictures of the Rodges farmhouse in Germany, the Rodges camp for immigrants near Petach Tikva, and a connected biography.
{{Authority control
Kibbutzim
Religious Kibbutz Movement
Populated places established in 1937
Populated places in Northern District (Israel)
1937 establishments in Mandatory Palestine
German-Jewish culture in Israel
Polish-Jewish culture in Israel
Romanian-Jewish culture in Israel