Download Free A Village By The Jordan The Story Of Degania Book in PDF and EPUB Free Download. You can read online A Village By The Jordan The Story Of Degania and write the review.

In this highly readable first-person account “we learn the history of Kibbutz Degania from one of its first members, beginning in 1911, when there were only 12, and through its growth as a community and center of agriculture, its joys and its difficulties. It’s an attractive, interesting read... featuring such major figures as Trumpeldor, Arthur Ruppin, and A. D. Gordon... through the years of the British Mandate, the Second World War, the Jewish Brigade, the War of Independence and after... The author is nostalgic for the past with its ideals, its extraordinary atmosphere, austere customs, poverty and warm collegiality... This is a book that deserves to be read and pondered.” — Dante Lattes, La Rassegna Mensile di Israel “A Village by the Jordan: The Story of Degania tells the story of the first collective village, founded at the beginning of the present century. The authenticity of this account is enhanced by the fact that its author, Joseph Baratz, was one of the founders of the village and has continued to play a major part in its development from a precarious border settlement of twelve young men and women into a prosperous community of over a thousand souls. The story is one of human endurance, hope and despair, toil and struggle, failure and final success. Its pages testify to the determined dedication of its members to create a just and meaningful life for themselves and others. The author tells his story with a spontaneity and simplicity that mark any truly creative experience. Baratz refrains from idealizing and embellishing; he shows throughout a sense of historical perspective and presents events and personalities in their proper light. He never resorts to wishful interpretation; the significance of what he relates becomes evident by dint of the momentum inherent in the story, which thus assumes the additional importance of an authentic historical document... A Village by the Jordan is indeed both enlightening and inspiring.” — Shaoul Hareli, Studies in Bibliography and Booklore
This book attempts a comprehensive overview of the "architecture" of the kibbutz: its essence, its history, its constant change, and its physical planning and architectural expression and management, and relates to this unique spatial alternative from a holistic viewpoint: the kibbutz in all stages of its development, from the kvutza as a "micro-utopian" commune to its physical configuration as an autonomous-autarkic complex arising out of its basic social, economic and educational structure, and its later stages as a potential 'macro-utopian' regional entity, envisioning a real alternative lifestyle to the capitalist metropolis. It is about its beginning and also about its end... and what might perhaps be its new future...
A fascinating, non-partisan exploration of an incendiary region Say the word “Israel” today and it sparks images of walls and rockets and a bloody conflict without end. Yet for decades, the symbol of the Jewish State was the noble pioneer draining the swamps and making the deserts bloom: the legendary kibbutznik. So what ever happened to the pioneers’ dream of founding a socialist utopia in the land called Palestine? Chasing Utopia: The Future of the Kibbutz in a Divided Israel draws readers into the quest for answers to the defining political conflict of our era. Acclaimed author David Leach revisits his raucous memories of life as a kibbutz volunteer and returns to meet a new generation of Jewish and Arab citizens struggling to forge a better future together. Crisscrossing the nation, Leach chronicles the controversial decline of Israel’s kibbutz movement and witnesses a renaissance of the original vision for a peaceable utopia in unexpected corners of the Promised Land. Chasing Utopia is an entertaining and enlightening portrait of a divided nation where hope persists against the odds.
This book appears on the 100-year celebration of the kibbutz movement, a century since the establishment of the first kibbutz, Deganya (Alef) in 1910. The kibbutz started as a farming community, and over the years has defined and developed its unique ideology of social and economic aspects of self-rule, equality, mutual responsibility, and common ownership of the means of production. The kibbutz, that some define as an utopian community, has gradually developed into a community with diverse means of production, including leading international industries. The book describes the development of the unique system of zoning, with landscape and gardens that strongly reflect the ideology. This uniqueness was developed while rooted in the Western international tradition of landscape architecture, with planners and designers educated mainly in central Europe. The book describes the different periods and styles in the development of the kibbutz landscape, as well as some of the main landscape issues and elements such as the dominant tree species and the circle. It also describes in detail some of the key people involved in the development of the kibbutz landscape and gardens - landscape gardeners, landscape architects, and kibbutz gardeners. The dramatic political and economic changes that occurred in Israel have not bypassed the kibbutz, for they caused changes in kibbutz ideology and the community's social and economic structures. These changes and the changes that they have caused and are still causing in the kibbutz landscape are carefully detailed in the last chapter. The dramatic changes in the kibbutz landscape have also led to a discussion of of the need for landscape conservation as well, and some examples are described.
Joseph Blasidocuments and describes the workings of an existing kibbutz society to provide a model for Utopian thinking and clear up confusion con­cerning Utopian values. He details the history and development of Kibbutz Vatik (a pseudonym), providing a systematic record of kibbutz culture: daily life and social arrangements, economic cooperation and work, politics, edu­cation, and attitudes of community members. Despite its advantages as a model Utopia, the kibbutz is not a perfect soci­ety. Having eliminated the most serious forms of social, economic, political, and educational fragmentation and violence, the communal group is left with the complicated and mounting problems of keeping a fellowship alive and well. Blasi assesses the community's advantages and disadvantages, il­luminating the interlocking dilemmas that cut across social and political con­cerns. The Communal Experience of the Kibbutz updates our knowledge of kibbutz life in light of recent research. It gives a detailed account of the Utopian community in the kibbutz and its activities. The special quality of the kib­butz, Blasi argues, lies not so much in its proven success vis-a-vis other communal societies, but in that it is a communal alternative that most West­ern peoples can readily visualize as a real option.
With an experienced journalist's eye, La Guardia offers a close look at the Israelis as they come to terms with the "post-Zionist" demolition of national myths and the Palestinians as they try to build their own state. 16 illustrations.
“It is virtually impossible to understand Israel or the Middle East without understanding Israel’s military history and its security needs. There are many books that attempt to provide such a history, but Ze’ev Schiff’s concise History of the Israeli Army is unquestionably the most successful... he writes with great objectivity and probes issues that most Israeli military writers prefer to dodge... Mr. Schiff’s ability to come to grips with the fact that both Israel and the Arab states bordering it used tactics the other side regards as terrorism, and continue to use them, is matched by his skill in summarizing the causes, course and outcome of the large-scale Arab-Israeli conflicts in 1956, 1967 and 1973 and the war of attrition in 1969-70. Mr. Schiff provides an excellent summary of the political and military forces that shaped Israel’s behavior in each war. He neither justifies nor excuses Israel’s behavior, and he does not justify or excuse Israel’s motives and goals — he is content to explain them. He also explains the factors that shaped Arab behavior and gives the causes of Arab defeats without editorializing... Mr. Schiff avoids technical issues, tactics and the details of battles; he focuses on the main flow of events. He provides a short history of the major events shaping Israel’s military forces and strategy before and during each war. His descriptions of military events flow naturally out of his accounts of political motives and strategy. His chapter on doctrine ties together the histories of the different conflicts, and it should be read by anyone who feels Israel somehow has caused most of its wars... His chapter on the 1982 war in Lebanon is the most incisive reporting yet done on that event, a model of how good defense reporting can be when it looks beyond the day-to-day flow of events and searches out the underlying pattern of military conflict and its causes. Mr. Schiff presents the war as one in which Mr. Sharon, then Israel’s Minister of Defense, snatched defeat from the jaws of victory... Mr. Schiff’s treatment of Mr. Sharon and the P.L.O.’s high command is devastating; it adds up to one of the best arguments against violence as a solution to the problems of the Middle East ever written... In short, Mr. Schiff has written a history that any historian or political or military analyst must envy.” — The New York Times “[A] story concisely and clearly told. Schiff’s ability to deal with Israeli military matters accurately and analytically... is in evidence as usual... This is a good introduction to the subject and well written.” — Middle East Journal “[I]f one does not have a basic book on the Israeli Army, this is one of the best.” — Military Affairs
What it Takes, from $20 to $200 Million is the true story of a man who with $20 in his pocket took a product and started selling it door to door, with ADD, not speaking English nor Spanish, but with the determination of making it happen. He identifies an underserved niche and develops a multimillion dollar operation, selling in Spanish in USA. This is the story of his family, the struggles and achievements and in a few steps it takes all from the start to the developing of a multimillion dollar business.
This study of Galilee in modern times reaches back to the region's Biblical roots and points to future challenges in the Arab-Jewish conflict, Israel's development, and inter-faith relations. This volume covers an array of subjects, including Kabbalah, the rise of Palestinian nationalism, modern Christian approaches to Galilee's past and present, Zionist pioneering, the roots of the Arab-Jewish dispute, and the conflict's eruption in Galilee in 1948. The book shows how the modernization of Galilee intertwined with mystical belief and practice, developing in its own grassroots way among Palestinians, Orthodox Jews, Christians, and Druze, rather than being a byproduct of Western intervention. In doing so, The History of Galilee, 1538–1949: Mysticism, Modernization, and War offers fresh, challenging perspectives for scholars in the history of religion, military history, theology, world politics, middle eastern studies, and other disciplines.
With this volume the history of the first century of the International reaches its conclusion. Originally I had intended that the trilogy would come to a close with the centenary of the founding of the First International in September 1964. But before I could finish writing the third volume the tragedy of the Communist revolution in Czechoslovakia had played itself out. 'The Spring of Prague' of 1968, having set in motion a process of change from a Communist dictatorship to a Socialist democracy, was followed within a few months by the invasion of the armies of the five Warsaw Pact powers to forestall reformation in Czechoslovakia. Both revolution and counter-revolution were events of the utmost significance for the history of Socialism-the revolution, for showing that it was possible for a Communist system of totalitarian dictatorship to be transformed without resort to force; and the counter-revolution, for showing how the regime in the Soviet Union has remained essentially unaltered since Stalin's death. The invasion of Czechoslovakia brutally called in question any optimistic perspective of development within the Soviet Union itself.