Page 12 - Issue 31

Amazon has just published Howard Goldsmith’s book on
the 1950 history of
British Habonim’s Garin
Gimmel on Shnat
Hachshara at Kibbutz
Gal Ed.

*

A band of thirty English
Socialist Zionist youth
from Habonim (Dror)
spend a year devoted to
training on a Kibbutz, in
the three year old state
of Israel. All were
committed to an
idealized lifestyle of
collectivism in which
they would help build a
safe and happy homeland for Jews from all parts of the
world after centuries of exile and execution.

The story of that challenging year records our struggles
to relate to one another and maintain our ideals. The
book shows the human make up of the collective farm
Gal-Ed and it's own journey forwards.

With the nearest telephone 10 kilometres away, radios,
post and newspapers were the only way to make
contact with the rest of the world. These twelve months
were a mixture of hard work, of excitement and
escapades.