At the outset, the settlement consisted of just two wooden huts and a handful of tents. There was no steady income yet, and it was agreed that the Tel Mond Bloc would provide the new settlers with work-primarily in the local citrus orchards and in potato harvesting.
Avraham Gurochov, who was notably tall, would set off to perform electrical work accompanied by a donkey. Gurochov would walk behind, while Araleh, his work partner, rode ahead. These were not easy days - marked by hardship and modest but hopeful beginnings. At the site itself, there was virtually nothing aside from two small chicken coops near the huts in Tel Mond. Eventually, a flower nursery and vegetable garden were established, but most residents continued to earn their livelihood through external employment.
Soon after, a metalwork shop was opened. It began by manufacturing fruit-picking carts for the orchards and wire mesh for poultry coops. The nearby moshavim were pleased with the new source of skilled labor - opting for quality metal repairs over the improvised solutions they had managed with wire. Orders began pouring in, and Yehoshua, one of the workers, was known to promise delivery “by Thursday” - though he never said which Thursday.
Meanwhile, Carmi, a member trained at Mikveh Israel Agricultural School, lobbied the Jewish Agency to donate the group’s first six cows - thus launching Bnei Dror’s dairy farm. “We had no space,” he later recalled, “so we set up the cowshed just north of the dining hall. Which meant, naturally, that mealtimes came with a distinct aroma.”
As the residents worked to secure the moshav’s economic foundations, Alex Shtadler, the Tel Mond Bloc commander on behalf of the Haganah, arrived to remind them of another urgent necessity: security. Surrounded by hostile Arab villages, Bnei Dror needed defenders. Shtadler summoned Carmi and ordered him to attend a squad commander training course with Yaankele Shapira, held in Beit Yehoshua and Tel Yitzhak. Upon returning, the two were appointed the moshav’s first security officers.
Aliza heard about the place from her friend Miriam Zlatekis, who described it as “a paradise on earth.” “I got really excited,” Aliza recalled. “I had long talks with Haim Gutman. We spoke about how, even when taking risks, we were secure in this community. That here, in this moshav, we’d be looked after for life. That’s how certain we were.”
Sylvia added: “We were real idealists. Many of us came from kibbutzim or moshavim and supported those who hadn’t. I was the only mother with a two-year-old daughter, Naomi, and the whole community helped raise her. I needed to set an example - so I went out to work outside the moshav.”
During these early years, romances blossomed, leading to the first couples and weddings in the community. Yaankele confided to Ruth that Carmi was slipping away from his squad commander course to sneak off to Even Yehuda: “We found him a wonderful red-haired girl,” he told her. And on the first anniversary of the founding of Bnei Dror, in 1947, Carmi and Miriam were married in a joint celebration.
Source: Uriel Ben-Ami (Ed.), 1996, Bnei Dror Jubilee Book, 1946–1996, Or Media Publishing.