Alonei Abba
Encyclopedia
Alonei Abba is a moshav shitufi
, or semi-cooperative village, in northern Israel
. It is located in the Lower Galilee near Bethlehem of Galilee and Alonim
, in the hills east of Kiryat Tivon. Alonei Abba falls under the jurisdiction of the Jezreel Valley Regional Council
. In 2006 it had a population of 387.
on land purchased from the fellaheen village of Umm al-Amed. The purchase price of 170,000 francs was financed by a Haifa-based bank Darlehenskasse der deutschen evangelischen Gemeinde Haifa GmbH (Loan Bank of the Haifa Evangelical Congregation Ltd.) and completely refinanced by the Stuttgarter Gesellschaft zur Förderung der deutschen Ansiedlungen in Palästina (Stuttgart-based Company for the promotion of the German colonies in Palestine). The colony comprised 7,200,000 square meters (7,200 dunam
s).
Most of the colonists came from the German Colony (Haifa), which was founded by the Templer
s. In 1874 the Temple Society underwent a schism
and envoys of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces successfully proselytised among the schismatics. Thus the Haifa German Colony became home to two Christian denominations and their congregations. While in Germany the Templers were regarded sectarians, the Evangelical proselytes gained major financial and ideological support from German Lutheran and United
church bodies
. This created an atmosphere of mistrust and envy among the German colonists in Haifa. Due to population increase and the ongoing urbanisation of Haifa, they searched for land to found new monodenominational colonies. Thus the Evangelical
Protestants founded Waldheim, while Templers settled in the neighbouring Bethlehem of Galilee.
The settlement was inaugurated on the occasion of Harvest Festival
on 6 October 1907. Then, the new Waldheimers still lived in the simple clay huts bought from the previous owners. The Haifa engineer Ernst August Voigt presented the plan of the streets and the 16 sites around a central site, reserved for a church. In 1909 the Jerusalemsverein (Association of Jerusalem), a Berlin-based organisation supportive of Protestant activities in the Holy Land, contributed money for the development of a water supply. By 1914, the Waldheimers planted vineyards of 5,000 square meters and more than 500 olive trees. In December 1913, the farmers of Waldheim and Bethlehem keeping dairy cattle founded a common dairy cooperative to pasteurise milk and deliver it to Haifa.
Most of the residents bore German citizenship. In 1932 the Nazi party won the first two members in Palestine. In the course of the 1930s some Waldheimers also joined the Nazi party, indicating the fading affinity to the Evangelical ideals. Until August 1939, 17% of all Gentile Germans in Palestine were enrolled as members of the Nazi party.
After the Nazi takeover
in Germany, the new Reich government adapted foreign policy to Nazi ideals, based on the idea that Germany and Germanness were equal to Nazism
. International schools of German language subsidised or fully financed with government funds were asked to redraw their educational programs and employ teachers aligned to the Nazi party. The teachers in Waldheim were financed by the Reich so that also here Nazi teachers took over. In 1933 Germans Gentiles living in Palestine appealed to Paul von Hindenburg
and the Foreign Office not to use Swastika symbols for German institutions, without success. Some German Gentiles pleaded the Reich's government to drop its announced plan to boycott shops of Jewish Germans
on 1 April 1933. Later the opposition of Gentile Germans in Palestine acquiesed. A Palestinian branch of the Hitler youth
was built up by the help of German government subsidies. By 1935 the Nazis had succeeded to streamline the municipal bodies of the settlements of Gentile Germans in Palestine. On 20 August 1939, the German government ordered the Gentile German men for recruitment in the Wehrmacht
. 350 followed the call.
After the start of the Second World War, all Germans in Palestine became enemy aliens. The British authorities decided to intern most of the enemy aliens. Sarona
, Bethlehem of Galilee, Waldheim, and Wilhelma were converted into internment camps. Most enemy aliens living elsewhere in Palestine—comprising Gentile Germans, Hungarians and Italians—were interned in one of the settlements, while the inhabitants of the settlements simply stayed where they were. In summer 1941, 665 interned Templers, almost all young families with children, were released to Australia, where they could settle again. Many of the remaining Germans were either too old or too sick to leave for Australia, while a second group, mostly Evangelical Germans, did not want to go there. With the help of the interned Italians and Hungarians, the internees could maintain the agricultural production to feed themselves and supply surplus to market in return for supplies not available within the camps. In December 1941 and in the course of 1942, another 400 Evangelical and Templer internees, mostly wives and children of men, who had followed the calls for recruitment, were released, via Turkey, to Germany for family reunification
.
After the Peace of Paris
the Italian and Hungarian internees were released from Waldheim and the other camps. But the Britons refused to repatriate the remaining German internees to the British zone in Germany because the British zone was flooded with millions of war refugees and millions more expelled after the war from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other countries previously conquered by Germany. Also, most of the internees did not want to go to Germany because there was no opportunity to gain untilled land in Germany to settle again as farmers. In 1947 the British authorities and Australia agreed to allow the remaining interned Templers to emigrate to Australia.
On 17 April 1948, armed entities of the Haganah entered Waldheim, with the few British soldiers under camp commander Alan Tilbury unable to impede them, killing two colonists and severely wounding a woman. This incident and the end of the mandate forced the Britons to hurry the resettlement, thus all the internees, 51 Germans and 4 Swiss, were transferred to Cyprus
, first into a camp of simple tents near Famagusta
. By 14 May 1948, when Israel became independent, only about 50 Gentile Germans, mostly elderly and sick persons, were living in the new state. They voluntarily left the country or were successively expelled by the government.
, members of Hanoar Hatzioni
, established Kibbutz
BaMa'avak (lit. In The Struggle) in the abandoned colony, after four years of agricultural training in Herzliya
. Three years later, the kibbutz became a Moshav
shitufi and the name was changed to Alonei Abba in memory of Abba Berdichev, who was parachuted into Czechoslovakia in 1943 to assist clandestine British forces, but was captured and executed in 1945.
for the church in early 1914. The Haifa-based architect Otto Lutz led the construction works. In 1921, the Evangelical church at Alonei Abba, which still stands today, was inaugurated. The Alon winery, surrounded by a grove of oak trees, is located in the former dairy cooperative (est. 1913).
nature reserve was declared close by, to the north. The reserve is home to Valonia oak trees (Quercus macrolepis
) and Palestine Oak (Quercus calliprinos). Other flora in the forest includes Pistacia palaestina
, Styrax
officinalis, Carob
, Rhamnus palaestinus, and Judas tree
s. Most of the reserve is open for experimental grazing by cattle from the moshav.
Moshav shitufi
A Moshav shitufi is a type of cooperative village in Israel whose organizational principles place it between the kibbutz and the moshav on the scale of cooperation...
, or semi-cooperative village, in northern Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
. It is located in the Lower Galilee near Bethlehem of Galilee and Alonim
Alonim
Alonim is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Lower Galilee, it falls under the jurisdiction of Jezreel Valley Regional Council. In 1947 Alonim had a population of over 450. In 2006 it had a population of 521....
, in the hills east of Kiryat Tivon. Alonei Abba falls under the jurisdiction of the Jezreel Valley Regional Council
Jezreel Valley Regional Council
Jezreel Valley Regional Council is a regional council in northern Israel that encompasses most of the settlements in the Jezreel Valley. It includes 15 kibbutzim, 15 moshavim, 6 communal settlements and two Bedouin villages...
. In 2006 it had a population of 387.
Waldheim
Alonei Abba was formerly known as Waldheim , a colony founded in 1907 by German Christians affiliated with the Prussian evangelical churchPrussian Union (Evangelical Christian Church)
The Prussian Union was the merger of the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church in Prussia, by a series of decrees – among them the Unionsurkunde – by King Frederick William III...
on land purchased from the fellaheen village of Umm al-Amed. The purchase price of 170,000 francs was financed by a Haifa-based bank Darlehenskasse der deutschen evangelischen Gemeinde Haifa GmbH (Loan Bank of the Haifa Evangelical Congregation Ltd.) and completely refinanced by the Stuttgarter Gesellschaft zur Förderung der deutschen Ansiedlungen in Palästina (Stuttgart-based Company for the promotion of the German colonies in Palestine). The colony comprised 7,200,000 square meters (7,200 dunam
Dunam
A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum, dynym, dulum was a non-SI unit of land area used in the Ottoman Empire and representing the amount of land that can be plowed in a day; its value varied from 900–2500 m²...
s).
Most of the colonists came from the German Colony (Haifa), which was founded by the Templer
Templers (religious believers)
Templers are members of the Temple Society , a German Protestant sect with roots in the Pietist movement of the Lutheran Church. The Templers were expelled from the church in 1858 because of their millennial beliefs. Their aim was to realize the apocalyptic visions of the prophets of Israel in the...
s. In 1874 the Temple Society underwent a schism
Schism (religion)
A schism , from Greek σχίσμα, skhísma , is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization or movement religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a break of communion between two sections of Christianity that were previously a single body, or to a division within...
and envoys of the Evangelical State Church of Prussia's older Provinces successfully proselytised among the schismatics. Thus the Haifa German Colony became home to two Christian denominations and their congregations. While in Germany the Templers were regarded sectarians, the Evangelical proselytes gained major financial and ideological support from German Lutheran and United
United and uniting churches
United and uniting churches are churches formed from the merger or other form of union of two or more different Protestant denominations.Perhaps the oldest example of a united church is found in Germany, where the Evangelical Church in Germany is a federation of Lutheran, United and Reformed...
church bodies
Landeskirche
In Germany and Switzerland, a Landeskirche is the church of a region. They originated as the national churches of the independent states, States of Germany or Cantons of Switzerland , that later unified to form modern Germany or modern Switzerland , respectively.-Origins in the Holy Roman...
. This created an atmosphere of mistrust and envy among the German colonists in Haifa. Due to population increase and the ongoing urbanisation of Haifa, they searched for land to found new monodenominational colonies. Thus the Evangelical
Prussian Union (Evangelical Christian Church)
The Prussian Union was the merger of the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church in Prussia, by a series of decrees – among them the Unionsurkunde – by King Frederick William III...
Protestants founded Waldheim, while Templers settled in the neighbouring Bethlehem of Galilee.
The settlement was inaugurated on the occasion of Harvest Festival
Harvest festival
A Harvest Festival is an annual celebration which occurs around the time of the main harvest of a given region. Given the differences in climate and crops around the world, harvest festivals can be found at various times throughout the world...
on 6 October 1907. Then, the new Waldheimers still lived in the simple clay huts bought from the previous owners. The Haifa engineer Ernst August Voigt presented the plan of the streets and the 16 sites around a central site, reserved for a church. In 1909 the Jerusalemsverein (Association of Jerusalem), a Berlin-based organisation supportive of Protestant activities in the Holy Land, contributed money for the development of a water supply. By 1914, the Waldheimers planted vineyards of 5,000 square meters and more than 500 olive trees. In December 1913, the farmers of Waldheim and Bethlehem keeping dairy cattle founded a common dairy cooperative to pasteurise milk and deliver it to Haifa.
Most of the residents bore German citizenship. In 1932 the Nazi party won the first two members in Palestine. In the course of the 1930s some Waldheimers also joined the Nazi party, indicating the fading affinity to the Evangelical ideals. Until August 1939, 17% of all Gentile Germans in Palestine were enrolled as members of the Nazi party.
After the Nazi takeover
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
in Germany, the new Reich government adapted foreign policy to Nazi ideals, based on the idea that Germany and Germanness were equal to Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. International schools of German language subsidised or fully financed with government funds were asked to redraw their educational programs and employ teachers aligned to the Nazi party. The teachers in Waldheim were financed by the Reich so that also here Nazi teachers took over. In 1933 Germans Gentiles living in Palestine appealed to Paul von Hindenburg
Paul von Hindenburg
Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg , known universally as Paul von Hindenburg was a Prussian-German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934....
and the Foreign Office not to use Swastika symbols for German institutions, without success. Some German Gentiles pleaded the Reich's government to drop its announced plan to boycott shops of Jewish Germans
Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses
The Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses in Germany took place on 1 April 1933, soon after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor on 30 January 1933...
on 1 April 1933. Later the opposition of Gentile Germans in Palestine acquiesed. A Palestinian branch of the Hitler youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
was built up by the help of German government subsidies. By 1935 the Nazis had succeeded to streamline the municipal bodies of the settlements of Gentile Germans in Palestine. On 20 August 1939, the German government ordered the Gentile German men for recruitment in the Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht
The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...
. 350 followed the call.
After the start of the Second World War, all Germans in Palestine became enemy aliens. The British authorities decided to intern most of the enemy aliens. Sarona
Sarona, Palestine
Sarona was a German Templer colony northeast of the city of Jaffa. It was one of the earliest modern villages established in Palestine. Today it is a neighborhood in Tel Aviv, Israel.- History :...
, Bethlehem of Galilee, Waldheim, and Wilhelma were converted into internment camps. Most enemy aliens living elsewhere in Palestine—comprising Gentile Germans, Hungarians and Italians—were interned in one of the settlements, while the inhabitants of the settlements simply stayed where they were. In summer 1941, 665 interned Templers, almost all young families with children, were released to Australia, where they could settle again. Many of the remaining Germans were either too old or too sick to leave for Australia, while a second group, mostly Evangelical Germans, did not want to go there. With the help of the interned Italians and Hungarians, the internees could maintain the agricultural production to feed themselves and supply surplus to market in return for supplies not available within the camps. In December 1941 and in the course of 1942, another 400 Evangelical and Templer internees, mostly wives and children of men, who had followed the calls for recruitment, were released, via Turkey, to Germany for family reunification
Family reunification
Family reunification is a recognized reason for immigration in many countries. The presence of one or more family members in a certain country, therefore, enables the rest of the family to immigrate to that country as well....
.
After the Peace of Paris
Paris Peace Treaties, 1947
The Paris Peace Conference resulted in the Paris Peace Treaties signed on February 10, 1947. The victorious wartime Allied powers negotiated the details of treaties with Italy, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland .The...
the Italian and Hungarian internees were released from Waldheim and the other camps. But the Britons refused to repatriate the remaining German internees to the British zone in Germany because the British zone was flooded with millions of war refugees and millions more expelled after the war from Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other countries previously conquered by Germany. Also, most of the internees did not want to go to Germany because there was no opportunity to gain untilled land in Germany to settle again as farmers. In 1947 the British authorities and Australia agreed to allow the remaining interned Templers to emigrate to Australia.
On 17 April 1948, armed entities of the Haganah entered Waldheim, with the few British soldiers under camp commander Alan Tilbury unable to impede them, killing two colonists and severely wounding a woman. This incident and the end of the mandate forced the Britons to hurry the resettlement, thus all the internees, 51 Germans and 4 Swiss, were transferred to Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, first into a camp of simple tents near Famagusta
Famagusta
Famagusta is a city on the east coast of Cyprus and is capital of the Famagusta District. It is located east of Nicosia, and possesses the deepest harbour of the island.-Name:...
. By 14 May 1948, when Israel became independent, only about 50 Gentile Germans, mostly elderly and sick persons, were living in the new state. They voluntarily left the country or were successively expelled by the government.
Alonei Abba
On 12 May 1948, a group of young Zionist pioneers from Czechoslavakia, Austria and RomaniaRomania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, members of Hanoar Hatzioni
Hanoar Hatzioni
Hanoar Hatzioni is a youth movement established in 1926, with its head offices now in Israel. Its three main pillars are Judaism, Pluralism, and Zionism...
, established Kibbutz
Kibbutz
A kibbutz is a collective community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economic branches, including industrial plants and high-tech enterprises. Kibbutzim began as utopian communities, a combination of socialism and Zionism...
BaMa'avak (lit. In The Struggle) in the abandoned colony, after four years of agricultural training in Herzliya
Herzliya
Herzliya is a city in the central coast of Israel, at the western part of the Tel Aviv District. It has a population of 87,000 residents. Named after Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, Herzliya covers an area of 26 km²...
. Three years later, the kibbutz became a Moshav
Moshav
Moshav is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists during the second aliyah...
shitufi and the name was changed to Alonei Abba in memory of Abba Berdichev, who was parachuted into Czechoslovakia in 1943 to assist clandestine British forces, but was captured and executed in 1945.
Landmarks
Hans Martin Kuno Moderow, pastor of the Haifa Evangelical Congregation, also provided services in Waldheim, at the beginning in the living room of the new house of Waldheim's then mayor Gottlob Weinmann. The Waldheimers saved funds for a church of their own and could thus lay the cornerstoneCornerstone
The cornerstone concept is derived from the first stone set in the construction of a masonry foundation, important since all other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entire structure.Over time a cornerstone became a ceremonial masonry stone, or...
for the church in early 1914. The Haifa-based architect Otto Lutz led the construction works. In 1921, the Evangelical church at Alonei Abba, which still stands today, was inaugurated. The Alon winery, surrounded by a grove of oak trees, is located in the former dairy cooperative (est. 1913).
Alonei Abba nature reserve
In 1994, a 950-dunamDunam
A dunam or dönüm, dunum, donum, dynym, dulum was a non-SI unit of land area used in the Ottoman Empire and representing the amount of land that can be plowed in a day; its value varied from 900–2500 m²...
nature reserve was declared close by, to the north. The reserve is home to Valonia oak trees (Quercus macrolepis
Quercus macrolepis
Quercus macrolepis, the Valonia oak, is a tree in the family Fagaceae.It is found in the Southern Mediterranean, in the Balkans including the Greek Islands, in Morocco, and in Asia Minor.-Description:...
) and Palestine Oak (Quercus calliprinos). Other flora in the forest includes Pistacia palaestina
Pistacia palaestina
Pistacia palaestina is a tree or shrub common in the Levant region . It is called terebinth in English, a name also used for Pistacia terebinthus, a similar tree from the western Mediterranean Basin.-Description:...
, Styrax
Styrax
Styrax is a genus of about 130 species of large shrubs or small trees in the family Styracaceae, mostly native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, with the majority in eastern and southeastern Asia, but also crossing the equator in South America...
officinalis, Carob
Carob tree
Ceratonia siliqua, commonly known as the Carob tree and St John's-bread, is a species of flowering evergreen shrub or tree in the pea family, Fabaceae...
, Rhamnus palaestinus, and Judas tree
Cercis siliquastrum
Cercis siliquastrum, commonly known as Judas Tree, is a small deciduous tree from Southern Europe and Western Asia which is noted for its prolific display of deep-pink flowers in spring.-Description:...
s. Most of the reserve is open for experimental grazing by cattle from the moshav.