Workers in the Moshava

Ness Ziona was founded in 1883 in the days of the First Aliya - as the individual act of Reuven Lerer. From the Second Aliya it was called Ness Ziona, one of the Jewish "citrus grove moshavot" in Palestine. These moshavot did not employ Jewish laborers. The moshava workers, most of whom lived and worked in the moshava from the 1930s, were played a fundamental role in the 40-year struggle to organize Hebrew labor in the renascent Jewish Yishuv in Palestine.

The book depicts the workers' rebellion vis-à-vis the socioeconomic life of the moshava and their activities and involvement in the process of building and planning the moshava's proletarian atmosphere.

A new era began in the history of the moshava in the years of the Third Aliya (1919-1923), the Fourth Aliya (1924-1928) and the Fifth Aliya (1929-1939), during which the workers began to organize groups that maintained a communal way of life, with the objective of overcoming the hardships of daily life.

An important site in Ness Ziona is Givat Michael, which accommodated large groups of workers, leaving a significant mark on the moshava and its history. Groups of workers left Givat Michael to settle the Jewish frontier and establish kibbutzim. Many of the kibbutz members who stayed in Givat Michael later settled in Ness Ziona and some became leaders. The photographs describe the diverse occupations and the social-cultural activities of the Ness Ziona workers before the establishment of the State of Israel. The photographs were collected from family albums.

Curator: Kineret Palti

Closes: December 6, 2014