As early as 1927, the first voices began to be heard among members of the “Yizrael” organization, calling to abandon the dream of settling in the Jezreel Valley on the land of Zer’in and to seek settlement in another region. Doubts about the ability of the national institutions to resolve the issue of our settlement grew from day to day. These hesitations and uncertainties already marked the meeting of the organization’s members held in Kfar Yehezkel in November 1927. At the following meeting, held in Zikhron Ya’akov in April 1928, a majority decision was reached to move toward intensive settlement. This was, of course, a 180-degree shift, requiring a fundamental change in the members’ orientation, who had grown weary of waiting for the goodwill of the national funds and the endless postponements of our settlement.
The second meeting, held in Zikhron Ya’akov on 31.8.1928, was marked by the unification of the “Yizrael A” and “Yizrael B” organizations. According to the organization’s circular dated 3.9.1928, the meeting was accompanied by “exaltation of spirit, waves of energy, and faith in our future accompanied our action (the unification).” At this meeting, the issue of securing land in the Sharon was raised concretely, as stated in the circular signed by Zvi Marder and Shmuel Tsipman: “According to the agreement between the Agricultural Center and the Palestine Land Development Company, the organization is obligated to deposit, on account of 2,000 dunams of land in the vicinity of Kfar Saba, the sum of 500 Palestine pounds by September 15, and by February 1 - an additional one pound per dunam in total.” In this circular, all members were called upon to make special efforts and to utilize all “sources of credit” at their disposal for the purpose of settlement.
Thus, a new path and new plans for our settlement were taking shape. How did this turning point come about? At the 14th Zionist Congress in Vienna and in the settlement committees, Herzfeld and other comrades worked with great vigor and brought the issue of settlement out of stagnation. For the first time, the idea of settling workers from the moshavot (agricultural colonies) was approved, and explicit resolutions were adopted for the Jewish National Fund to purchase land for this purpose - in the moshavot and in the plantation regions in general.
Upon the return of the directors, Herzfeld opened negotiations with them to finalize the land issue, urging them to conclude it, primarily based on the promise of South African Jewry to raise £75,000 for the acquisition of land in a concentrated bloc. He demanded that they use this money to purchase land in the vicinity of Tel Mond, which the Agricultural Center was already negotiating to buy. The JNF management agreed to this proposal on condition that, in addition to the contribution from South African Jewry, the settlers would also invest the “pound per dunam” in the land acquisition. The Agricultural Center agreed to this demand. At the same time, Herzfeld entered negotiations with Mr. Moehl, representative of the Palestine Economic Corporation established by American Zionists, regarding the construction of houses for settlement groups whose land had already been purchased or was about to be purchased. Moehl accepted the proposal and began clarifying the details. At the same time, Herzfeld also approached the management of the “Palestine Plantations Company” (founded by Lord Melchett) about providing a loan for two hundred houses to be built on the organizations’ lands adjacent to Tel Mond. In a memorandum sent to Lord Melchett, it was proposed that repayment would be guaranteed by deductions over the years from the wages of the organization’s members who would work regularly in Tel Mond.
The opportunity for choosing a different path of settlement thus emerged when the plan arose to combine various private sources of funding for settlement. One of these sources was the American company, whose leaders included Mr. Moehl. He and his associates viewed settlement differently from the leaders of the Zionist movement, and their criteria were entirely different from those guiding us. One such criterion was: the settler must contribute financially to carrying out his own settlement. And if one asked: from where would an agricultural laborer, barely earning his livelihood, obtain the means for settlement? Their answer was: that is not our concern - let them sell from the threshing floor or from the winepress, as long as they contribute their share. Indeed, once the proposal arose to join the settlement known as the “Settlement of the Thousand,” each candidate was required to contribute £20 as his share toward the purchase of land for settlement.
Thus, once we abandoned the dream of the Valley, members began leaving the various training farms and concentrating in the Sharon and in Judea. At the end of 1928, the organization’s secretariat was transferred to Ra’anana, and gradually clusters of our members formed in Herzliya, Kfar Saba, and Ra’anana.
Fortune smiled upon our organization, and Sir Alfred Mond, a great Zionist with a Jewish heart, purchased a large tract of land in the Sharon for planting orchards that would be sold to Jews abroad, who, in time, when the orchards bore fruit, would come to settle in the country. The Agricultural Center therefore proposed to the members of “Yizrael,” eager for settlement, that they take hold in the Tel Mond bloc as hired workers in these orchards, with the promise that near their workplace a moshav would also be established for them on JNF land.
After six years of wandering, disappointments, and “castles in the air” in Zer’in, we finally saw a real prospect for settlement - even if only on a small plot of land, even if each member had to pay money he did not have for this plot. Thus began the migration of members to Tel Mond and their employment in the orchards, whose planting began in the spring of 1930.
(From: Ben-Zioni Yaakov, Sefer Kfar Hess, Moses Printing House)