Page 37 - Discover Israel Magazine - 2015 Edition
P. 37
The train that tours the kibbutz A restored tractor at the museum
You’ll fall in love at irst sight with the big- comrades worked by day and danced by after the hills to the east, was founded
little pioneer the moment you meet him, night in their new community, which they close to the region’s most important ancient
in the museum’s 10-minute audiovisual wanted to be a way station between Judea highway, the Via Maris.
presentation. There, he is a ictional and the Galilee. They shared everything,
character, a composite of members over even the clothes on their backs. They herded One of Ein Shemer’s biggest attractions
the generations whom they called Aryeh, sheep, drilled for water, guarded their land is the tractor museum, which started out
although, as the ilm explains, in the old and eventually, made it bloom. You’ll see 25 years ago as the hobby of Ran Hedvati
country, before coming to Palestine in 1913, him court the ictional Sheindl, “whispering and another kibbutz member, Avraham
he was called Leib. They say he and his sweet nothings from Karl Marx...” And Shacham. Hedvati’s philosophy about
these machines, all lovingly restored right
watching as their family and the community down to the last layer of paint, posits that
grow, you’ll also get a hint of the challenges humans could accomplish nothing without
and changes faced by the kibbutz over the the machines they create. His enthusiasm
decades. ilters down to the guides who show them
of to groups. Some of the tractors were
Groups can learn about the early days rusting away in corners, or perhaps used to
and have fun at the same time; activities create the jungle-gyms in the yards of the
include dressing up as pioneers, washing ubiquitous kibbutz children’s houses. Word
clothes on an old-fashioned washboard, of this tractor or that old car would travel the
baking rolls, and, in season, even plowing, grapevine, inally reaching Hedvati and his
crushing olives and grinding wheat with team, who would then restore the rejected
century-old restored equipment. They can hunk of metal to its former glory.
also learn that “building the country” is
more than a metaphor, by laying loor tiles A steam engine dating from 1875 – revamped
and constructing a wall as the irst pioneers to operate on diesel fuel – is revved up
did. The museum is “then”; visitors get a for groups to show how it worked in the
sense of the “now” on a tractor tour around old days, when it would be rented out and
today’s kibbutz. carted from one community to another for
whatever needed pushing or pulling. In the
The museum’s life-size mannequins also museum, it is attached to a corn-threshing
machine. Onlookers of all ages grow wide-
help tell the story, posed in a recreated eyed watching all the clanging moving parts
scene from the original kibbutz dining room. work in concert.
Among the pioneer farmers is the kibbutz
secretary, who even in this egalitarian society Another highlight is the working locomotive
wielded a special kind of power because he that pulls a train for visitors to ride. It was
decided who worked where. Also on view is found disintegrating in the Be’er Sheva
one of the kibbutz’s Arab neighbors, along area, brought to Ein Shemer, and it now
with a British army oicer from the days of carries visitors about a kilometer on tracks
the Mandate and, in a replica of his carriage, laid especially for this purpose. It helps tell
the legendary physician, Dr. Hillel Yafe, who the story of a train that crossed the region
worked to eradicate the malaria that claimed to deliver wood to the ravenous locomotives
so many lives. traveling this branch of the Hijazi Railway
that crossed Palestine during Turkish times
Much of the museum is devoted to in the 19th century.
antiquities going back to prehistoric times.
This is not only because one of the kibbutz Kibbutz Ein Shemer showcases present
members is the archaeologist Adam Zertal. and past, showing how one pioneering
Among Zertal’s discoveries was the altar on community moved into the future with the
power of a locomotive, but still looks back
Mount Ebal, dating from the 13-12th century with pride.
BCE, the beginning of Israelite settlement. It
is the largest cultic site ever uncovered, and
looks amazingly like the one in Jerusalem’s
Second Temple as described by the Groups that want to take part in some or all of the
activities described above should make a reservation
historian Josephus and the Mishnah. You’ll by writing to rishonim@ein-shemer.org.il. Families and
also learn that Ein Shemer, whose name individuals are welcome at the museum and tractor
comes from the word Shomron (Samaria) shed during visiting hours.
Spin cycle, pioneer-style DISCOVER ISRAEL
37
You’ll fall in love at irst sight with the big- comrades worked by day and danced by after the hills to the east, was founded
little pioneer the moment you meet him, night in their new community, which they close to the region’s most important ancient
in the museum’s 10-minute audiovisual wanted to be a way station between Judea highway, the Via Maris.
presentation. There, he is a ictional and the Galilee. They shared everything,
character, a composite of members over even the clothes on their backs. They herded One of Ein Shemer’s biggest attractions
the generations whom they called Aryeh, sheep, drilled for water, guarded their land is the tractor museum, which started out
although, as the ilm explains, in the old and eventually, made it bloom. You’ll see 25 years ago as the hobby of Ran Hedvati
country, before coming to Palestine in 1913, him court the ictional Sheindl, “whispering and another kibbutz member, Avraham
he was called Leib. They say he and his sweet nothings from Karl Marx...” And Shacham. Hedvati’s philosophy about
these machines, all lovingly restored right
watching as their family and the community down to the last layer of paint, posits that
grow, you’ll also get a hint of the challenges humans could accomplish nothing without
and changes faced by the kibbutz over the the machines they create. His enthusiasm
decades. ilters down to the guides who show them
of to groups. Some of the tractors were
Groups can learn about the early days rusting away in corners, or perhaps used to
and have fun at the same time; activities create the jungle-gyms in the yards of the
include dressing up as pioneers, washing ubiquitous kibbutz children’s houses. Word
clothes on an old-fashioned washboard, of this tractor or that old car would travel the
baking rolls, and, in season, even plowing, grapevine, inally reaching Hedvati and his
crushing olives and grinding wheat with team, who would then restore the rejected
century-old restored equipment. They can hunk of metal to its former glory.
also learn that “building the country” is
more than a metaphor, by laying loor tiles A steam engine dating from 1875 – revamped
and constructing a wall as the irst pioneers to operate on diesel fuel – is revved up
did. The museum is “then”; visitors get a for groups to show how it worked in the
sense of the “now” on a tractor tour around old days, when it would be rented out and
today’s kibbutz. carted from one community to another for
whatever needed pushing or pulling. In the
The museum’s life-size mannequins also museum, it is attached to a corn-threshing
machine. Onlookers of all ages grow wide-
help tell the story, posed in a recreated eyed watching all the clanging moving parts
scene from the original kibbutz dining room. work in concert.
Among the pioneer farmers is the kibbutz
secretary, who even in this egalitarian society Another highlight is the working locomotive
wielded a special kind of power because he that pulls a train for visitors to ride. It was
decided who worked where. Also on view is found disintegrating in the Be’er Sheva
one of the kibbutz’s Arab neighbors, along area, brought to Ein Shemer, and it now
with a British army oicer from the days of carries visitors about a kilometer on tracks
the Mandate and, in a replica of his carriage, laid especially for this purpose. It helps tell
the legendary physician, Dr. Hillel Yafe, who the story of a train that crossed the region
worked to eradicate the malaria that claimed to deliver wood to the ravenous locomotives
so many lives. traveling this branch of the Hijazi Railway
that crossed Palestine during Turkish times
Much of the museum is devoted to in the 19th century.
antiquities going back to prehistoric times.
This is not only because one of the kibbutz Kibbutz Ein Shemer showcases present
members is the archaeologist Adam Zertal. and past, showing how one pioneering
Among Zertal’s discoveries was the altar on community moved into the future with the
power of a locomotive, but still looks back
Mount Ebal, dating from the 13-12th century with pride.
BCE, the beginning of Israelite settlement. It
is the largest cultic site ever uncovered, and
looks amazingly like the one in Jerusalem’s
Second Temple as described by the Groups that want to take part in some or all of the
activities described above should make a reservation
historian Josephus and the Mishnah. You’ll by writing to rishonim@ein-shemer.org.il. Families and
also learn that Ein Shemer, whose name individuals are welcome at the museum and tractor
comes from the word Shomron (Samaria) shed during visiting hours.
Spin cycle, pioneer-style DISCOVER ISRAEL
37
