Historical Background and Interviews
III. A New Beginning A New Beginning
see? This is a wonderful place! It’s just like Switzerland!” 4 A private investor had purchased land in the area, once called Shomria but later renamed Emek Zevulun, and was willing to allot part of it to the group. It was thought, however, that they had little chance of surviving. Indeed, the Zionist institutions were so out- raged that they threatened to sanction the group if it grew to more than twenty-five families. A Dr. Kliger of Haifa’s health department wrote to the Settle- ment Department in Jerusalem, “This site is the most dangerous one that you could have chosen. We have no idea what is the reason that induced you to choose this place of all places and in general we are surprised you chose any spot without first consulting with the Institute, whose duty is the anti-malaria work in the Hebrew settlements.” 5 The Settlement Department responded with a state- ment about the scarcity of acreage available for Jewish settlement in the Mandate. Two other groups tried to buy land in the Shomria area, Tchelet Lavan (Blue and White) and Chafetz Chaim (Desiring Life), but both eventually withdrew their petitions. While they waited for Achva to settle the land purchase, the founding members lived on acreage leased by the owner of a near- by cement factory. One rainy day toward the end of 1922, with lit- tle more than a pair of mules from a kibbutz in Sharon, and calling themselves the Laugh Group because their supplies were a joke, the group spent its entire treasury of 10 lire on a barrel of salted fish, and began building its meshek (small farm or settlement). At first, they named it Yahazor, after a nearby Arab village, Yajoor; later, they changed it to Yagur. Members dug irrigation channels, planted eucalyptus trees, and tried to establish fields. The first plowing was done behind a set of railroad tracks, where they sowed wheat and barley by hand. One member, Noach Yaguri, went to the Galilee and returned with a cow, and the group procured a few skinny chickens. But the soil was poor — and the water was very dirty. Engineers sent by Zionist institutions found that it would cost a prohibitive three thousand lire to drain the swamp, wrote Yaguri in the Yagur Book. “Only
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