KADDISHEL
A Life Reborn
savages can settle in such a place,” Zionist leader Menachem Osh- iskin commented when he visited a year later in 1923. 6 Poverty and hardship were accompanied by disease. Several of Yagur’s founding members, including Bergman, contracted fever and died. The others, after much debate, concluded that in order to succeed, Yagur would need a diversified economic base and a larger number of contributing members. They joined HaKibbutz HaMeuchad, a group that would help buy additional land and send new members. They developed a line of dairy products, established a can manufacturing plant, and found outside employment, most- ly in the port of Haifa and the cement factory, around which had grown the town of Nesher. Draining the marshes and trying to turn over the soil was back- breaking work. During the rains, the soil flooded. During the dry weather, it was too hard-packed and dry to cultivate — a plow blade could barely slice into it. But they managed to plant wheat, barley, and hay by hand. They also built a wall that somehow pro- tected the water from contamination. By 1933, the fields had started to bloom and Yagur had several hundred members. A popular joke at the time, recorded for poster - ity in the Yagur Book, is that a police officer arrived on the scene after a traffic accident and asked one of the drivers where he was from. “Yagur,” he was told. The other driver promptly exclaimed, “I’m also from YagurT” The officer added, “So am IT” By then, Yagur had experienced at least one Arab attack. In the rioting that began in Jerusalem on August 23, 1929 and spread throughout the country, seven of the 133 Jewish victims were killed in nearby Hadar HaCarmel. Bandits armed with clubs, iron bars, and axes gathered in Yajoor and attacked the kibbutz, but Yagur members defended the settlement successfully with only seven ri- fles, a few defective guns, and a small stock of ammunition; it was thought that the chance appearance of a British airplane overhead frightened the attackers. It was a turning point for Yagur’s mem- bers. They realized they had only themselves to rely on for securi- ty. Wasting no time, they erected a fence with guard posts around Yagur!” I!”
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