Page 30 - Discover Israel Magazine - 2015 Edition
P. 30
Let There Be
Light
At the confluence
of two streams, a The story begins in 1919, when
man with a dream T
Pinchas Rutenberg, a Zionist
engineer who emigrated from
brought water- Russia to Palestine, realized that attracting
powered electricity millions of Jews here, as hoped, would
to Israel. The require a technological makeover – and that
required electricity. In the face of doubts
visitors centers and obstacles from many quarters, from the
at Old Gesher British authorities to the philanthropic Baron
de Rothschild (who preferred steam power),
and Naharayim- Rutenberg decided that a hydroelectric
Ashdot-Yaakov tell power plant should be built in the northern
Jordan Valley, where the Jordan and
the tale. Yarmukh rivers converge.
Rutenberg had to negotiate with the British
Miriam Feinberg for six years, but in 1927, he inally obtained
Vamosh the franchise, and construction began on the
irst hydroelectric power plant in the Middle
East. The site - aptly named Naharayim, “two
rivers” in Hebrew - operated from 1932 until
1948. Its 18 megawatts provided 90% of the
country’s electric power at irst, decreasing
to about 30% as other stations were built.
Until not very long ago, the closest people
could get to this historic place was a point
along the Jordan Valley road about 10 miles
north of Beit She’an, where the plant could
be seen at a distance. However, it was too
close to the Jordanian border to actually
approach it. But the signing of the Israel-
Jordan peace treaty in 1994 paved the way
to restoration of a site known as Old Gesher,
adjacent to Naharayim, where a kibbutz was
founded in the 1920s, as well as the area
around the Naharayim plant itself. Visits to
both sites are now possible.
The Yarmukh River gushing past the
DISCOVER ISRAEL dam at Naharayim during a winter
30
lood. Photo: Itamar Grinberg
Light
At the confluence
of two streams, a The story begins in 1919, when
man with a dream T
Pinchas Rutenberg, a Zionist
engineer who emigrated from
brought water- Russia to Palestine, realized that attracting
powered electricity millions of Jews here, as hoped, would
to Israel. The require a technological makeover – and that
required electricity. In the face of doubts
visitors centers and obstacles from many quarters, from the
at Old Gesher British authorities to the philanthropic Baron
de Rothschild (who preferred steam power),
and Naharayim- Rutenberg decided that a hydroelectric
Ashdot-Yaakov tell power plant should be built in the northern
Jordan Valley, where the Jordan and
the tale. Yarmukh rivers converge.
Rutenberg had to negotiate with the British
Miriam Feinberg for six years, but in 1927, he inally obtained
Vamosh the franchise, and construction began on the
irst hydroelectric power plant in the Middle
East. The site - aptly named Naharayim, “two
rivers” in Hebrew - operated from 1932 until
1948. Its 18 megawatts provided 90% of the
country’s electric power at irst, decreasing
to about 30% as other stations were built.
Until not very long ago, the closest people
could get to this historic place was a point
along the Jordan Valley road about 10 miles
north of Beit She’an, where the plant could
be seen at a distance. However, it was too
close to the Jordanian border to actually
approach it. But the signing of the Israel-
Jordan peace treaty in 1994 paved the way
to restoration of a site known as Old Gesher,
adjacent to Naharayim, where a kibbutz was
founded in the 1920s, as well as the area
around the Naharayim plant itself. Visits to
both sites are now possible.
The Yarmukh River gushing past the
DISCOVER ISRAEL dam at Naharayim during a winter
30
lood. Photo: Itamar Grinberg
