By Dvora Tzfati
From: Bella Nachman, 2000, Stories of Ein Vered – Seventy Years of the Moshav, 1930–2000, Ein Vered Publishing
We immigrated from Germany to Palestine during the Fifth Aliyah in 1935. In Germany, we had participated in a Zionist training program, and when we arrived in the Land, we wanted to settle in a village and work in agriculture. At first, we lived in the town of Gedera, and later in Kfar Malal, where we heard about Ein Vered - and that’s how we came to the moshav.
Along with us, and after us, more families of German immigrants arrived in Ein Vered - altogether around 20 families. Here, we were referred to as “Yekkes.”
We were given farms that were vacant. The farm cost us 140 lira, for which we received a 4-dunam (approximately 1 acre) empty plot - all sand and halfa grass - and a young orchard on 3 dunams. At first, we lived with the Olyanik family until we built our own house. How did one build a house? We received an engineer’s blueprint and started building: Arab workers from Mansura brought sand on camels, and neighboring members worked in pairs to produce concrete blocks. That’s how construction progressed, and within a year the house stood - without plaster, without a railing, without shutters, and without paint. And also without electricity - only an oil lamp. The year was 1936.
The neighborhood we lived in was called “Beyond the Jordan” because of a large wadi (streambed) where Dror Road now passes. In winter, the wadi would fill with water, and once, while returning from Tel Mond, I couldn’t cross it. A neighbor came and helped me to the other side. Later, a bridge was built there, connecting the two parts of the moshav.
In the beginning, we worked outside the moshav in the orchards of Tel Mond - irrigation work and in the packing house. Over time, we developed our own farm. We had a chicken coop, and then another coop with 1,000 chickens, as well as goats - and of course, the orchard. Once, a poultry disease struck and wiped out the entire coop, but we recovered. During World War II, the oranges remained on the trees because export was impossible.
After the establishment of the State in 1948, agriculture improved. We were also involved in security matters. There were the riots in the 1930s, and the War of Independence in the 1940s. We always had to be prepared and defend ourselves. The moshav had an organized guard duty. The men took shifts in the lookout posts, and the women stood guard in observation towers with searchlights.
Once, I went up to guard on the roof of the community center, climbing a narrow iron ladder. It was frightening.
Today it can be told: we had a silik (weapons cache) in our yard - rifles were wrapped and hidden in a concealed spot. Once, an English acquaintance came to visit, and I got nervous and asked that the silik be removed. And so it was. At night, the rifles were moved to a pit in the nearby field. To cover the pit, our neighbor went out in the middle of the night and plowed over it. Another neighbor came by and was puzzled about the nighttime plowing - but no one was allowed to say a word.
Years passed. The village grew, the farm grew, and our family grew - and today, our children and grandchildren live here in the moshav.