22 On the Banks of Lake Kinneret

"Lake Kinneret is not just a beautiful sight, nor simply a part of nature – the fate of a nation is embodied in its name", so wrote the poetess Rachel about the days she spent on the "young woman's farm" which Hana Meizel established in 1911 on the shores of Lake Kinneret. Indeed, the destiny of many was determined in those turbulent days on the banks of the Kinneret. The Young Woman's farm seen in the photo is part of the Kinneret collective where pioneers of the second aliya (wave of immigration) settled and from where several of them went to "Um Juni" and established the first kibbutz – Degania.

Today it is fashionable to attack the kibbutzim and to present their ideology as a kind of madness. "Sweet Mud", a film that was made out of severe personal distress, is regarded by many as an indictment that reveals the kibbutz as a form of hypocritical and repressive life that is also mean spirited and devoid of even one iota of nobility of spirit. On the other hand there is a yearning for the early days of the kibbutz movement, for the great dream, for the personal dedication and pure faith. What a magnificent undertaking arose from the hut in Um Juni. Not only the kibbutzim, but all settlement in the country owes much to these groups of dreamers that danced at night on the shores of Lake Kinneret.

I joined a group that descended from Upper Beitaniya – where members of Hashomer Hatzair once settled (Yehoshua Sobol wrote a Play about them) – to the Kinneret farm and from there continued on to the Eucalyptus groves of Naomi Shemer and then to the Kinneret Cemetery (where Rachel and Noami Shemer are buried as well as Berl Katznelson, Moshe Hess, Borochov, Serkin and other famous people). What stories were told and were not told on this trip! Yes, there were indeed days and there were nights on these memorable paths between Degania and Kinneret.