Ruhama

Infobox_Kibbutz
kibbutz_name = Ruhama
foundation = 1911 (original settlement)
1944 (modern settlement)
founded_by = Hashomer Hatzair members
region = Negev
council = Sha'ar HaNegev
industry = Agriculture, manufacturing
affiliation = Kibbutz Movement
website =

Ruhama ( _he. רוחמה) is a kibbutz in the Negev desert in southern Israel. The original settlement established in 1911, is considered the first modern Jewish settlement in the Negev.cite book| title=Ruhama, the first Jewish settlement in the Negev he icon| url=http://lib.cet.ac.il/pages/item.asp?item=13004| last=Kna'ani| first=Eliyahu| publisher=Yad Ben Zvi| year=1981| accessdate=2007-09-18]

Located around ten kilometres east of Sderot and surrounded by a nature reserve, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 399.

History

Ruhama was first established in 1911, on land purchased in the same year by the "Remnant of Israel" ( _he. שארית ישראל) company, set up by Russian Jews in Moscow, under the leadership of Simon Velikovsky, the father of Immanuel Velikovsky, to invest money in Jewish agricultural settlements in the Land of Israel. It took its name from the Book of Joshua and the Hebrew word root 'rachmanut', meaning "compassion". "An artesian well was dug in 1912, and a rather plentiful supply of water was found at a depth of fifty meters."Velikovsky, Immanuel (1946) [http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?frow=0&n=10&srcht=a&query=ruhama&srchst=p&hdlquery=&bylquery=immanuel+velikovsky&daterange=period&mon1=09&day1=19&year1=1984&mon2=07&day2=05&year2=2008&submit.x=21&submit.y=8 The Story of Ruhama] New York Times, 19 September 1946] The group also included members of the socialist Zionist movement Hashomer Hatzair. However, the initial settlers were expelled by the Ottoman Empire in 1917; a dilapidated museum building is all that is left of that original settlement. However, the artesian well prompted the Allied forces under General Allenby to select Ruhama as their headquarters from which base "the British Army and the Jewish-American Legion conquered Palestine".

HaShomer used the Ruhama farm as its main forward base along the Gaza-Beersheva line [cite book |last=Goldstein |first=Yaacov N. and Jacob |title=From Fighters to Soldiers: How the Israeli Defense Forces Began |year=1998 |publisher=Sussex Academic Press, Israel|isbn=1902210018 |pages=302 ] .

Two subsequent attempts to re-establish the settlement during the period of the British Mandate were curtailed by the Arab riots in 1929 and 1936. The kibbutz was eventually successfully re-established in 1944, and grew to a population of 399.

In 2005, the Film "Sweet Mud" was filmed in Ruhama and Nir Eliyahu. [ [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3327428,00.html Sweet Mud sheds new light on old kibbutz life] Ynetnews]

In 2006, a group of the older, diehard communist ideologues blocked an attempt by the younger, more liberal members of Ruhama to establish a synagogue. [ [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-130803478.html 'No shuls, please, we're atheists. Kibbutz Ruhama founders torpedo synagogue plan'] The Jerusalem Post, 3 November 2006]

Economy

The economy is based on four agricultural branches: field crops, irrigated cultivation, orchards and henhouses, but agricultural crops do not generate enough income to support the kibbutz, so to earn a living, many of Ruhama's members have taken jobs outside the kibbutz.

Like many kibbutzim, Ruhama went through a process of privatization in the late 1990's.

The kibbutz operates a factory which produces brushes, including toothbrushes, which are exported. In 1984, Ruhama established a PCB design company.

Ruhama has a full-care center for elderly patients, with about 25 beds, attending to patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, dementia, paralysis and stroke. With membership dropping from 350 members to 210, upkeep of the senior care center has meant self-taxation and general belt tightening on the kibbutz.

A symbol of how greatly times have changed, the kibbutz cut community services like the dining room, so that every family now cares for itself.

Attractions

Atar Ha-Rishonim, or The Negev Pioneers, just outside the fence surrounding the kibbutz, is where the first Jewish settlers in modern times settled in the Negev. The site includes several buildings and a well, as as farming tools used almost 100 years ago.

Prominent Residents

*Recha Frier, a deputy to Zionist leader Henrietta Szold, first lived on a kibbutz near the Lebanese border, but moved to Ruhama in 1947.

Footnotes

References

* [http://books.google.com/books?id=9FjbCXPixYIC&pg=PA68&lpg=PA68&dq=kibbutz+ruhama&source=web&ots=Yg7exM-8UJ&sig=_2qRe3IHhp9DbFMMvzFUSFch_8A From Fighters to Soldiers: How the Israeli Defense Forces Began] Written by Yaacov N. Goldstein, Published 1998 Sussex Academic Press,ISBN 1902210018, Page 68 tells story of Ruhama farm as southern base for HaShomer
* [http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Mashav+%E2%80%93+International+Development/Publications/2001/Building+Together+for+Peace+and+Development.htm?DisplayMode=print Building Together for Peace and Development] article by Ruth Seligman, for Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs; mentions Kibbutz Ruhama as residential center for Negev Institute for Strategies in Peace and Development (NISPED).

External links

* [http://eng.negev-net.org.il/HTMLs/article.aspx?C2004=12761 Ruhama] Negev Information Centre
* [http://www.sahr.com/ruhama Kibbutz Ruhama] site by Kenny Sahr, with pictures of the kibbutz