The center is a joint initiative of the Local Council of Tel Mond and the Lev HaSharon Regional Council, operated by the Association for the History of the Tel Mond Bloc. From its inception, the site was intended to serve as an active educational center.

Aims of the Center

1. To present, illustrate, and commemorate the beginnings of settlement in the Tel Mond Bloc during the early 1930s.

2. To highlight the cooperation between Lord Alfred Mond’s economic enterprise and the moshavim of Kfar Hess, Herut, and Ein Vered—settlements originally planned as a unified bloc.

3. To foster a connection to the place, its sites, the region, and the Land of Israel.

The educational program derives from the school curriculum theme: “My Community.”

Educational Approach

Themes and Educational Activities

This house was built in 1931 for Alfred Mond – Lord Melchett, his family, and the Palestine Plantations Company. Following the dissolution of the company in 1956, the house was acquired by the Tel Mond Regional Council. In 1988, it was entrusted to the nonprofit organization The Society for the History of the Tel Mond Bloc, which, with the support of the Council for the Preservation of Heritage Sites in Israel, renovated the building with the aim of preserving and documenting the region’s history.

Today, the house serves as a museum and historical archive, dedicated to telling the story of the Tel Mond Bloc – the moshava (agricultural settlement) and the surrounding moshavim (workers’ cooperatives). The Documentation Center was established out of a deep commitment to preserving and recording the legacy of the early pioneers, their successors, and the transmission of this heritage from generation to generation.

Lord Melchett – Alfred Mond

A prominent British industrialist and statesman, Alfred Mond became involved in the Zionist movement under the influence of his friend, Chaim Weizmann. Beginning in 1921, he took an active role in the development of the Land of Israel. In 1928, he purchased land in the citrus-growing region of what is now known as the Tel Mond Bloc, named in his honor. He established a workers’ camp and provided accommodations for members of the settlement organizations laboring in the orchards.

In 1930, three organizations, encouraged by the Agricultural Center, established settlements near Lord Melchett’s plantations:

• The Yizrael organization founded the workers’ moshav Kfar Hess.
• The Herut Yehuda organization founded the workers’ moshav Herut.
• The Tel Aviv Farmers organization founded the workers’ moshav Ein Vered.

These pioneering settlers, primarily from Central Europe, founded the second wave of workers’ moshavim in the Land of Israel, based on diverse and intensive farming, centered around citrus cultivation. The bloc of settlements was a planned regional enterprise. From 1928 onward, close cooperation developed among the moshavim, and later, between the moshavim and the central moshava of Tel Mond.

In 1932, the moshav Kfar Yavetz was established by the HaPoel HaMizrachi movement. In 1944, Jewish immigrants from Yemen settled in Tel Mond and established the Yaakov neighborhood. In 1946, two additional moshavim, Bnei Dror and Mishmeret, were founded by groups of demobilized British Army veterans.

Following the establishment of the State of Israel, many new immigrants arrived in the Tel Mond Bloc. A transit camp (ma’abara) was built in the moshava, and the moshavim expanded. During the 1950s, the villages of Ein Sarid, Porat, and Azri’el were added to the bloc.