Netzer Sereni

Netzer Sereni
נֵצֶר סֶרֶנִי‎
Havat Allenby
Havat Allenby
Netzer Sereni is located in Central Israel
Netzer Sereni
Netzer Sereni
Coordinates: 31°55′21″N 34°49′20″E / 31.92250°N 34.82222°E / 31.92250; 34.82222
CountryIsrael
DistrictCentral
CouncilGezer
AffiliationKibbutz Movement
Founded20 June 1948
Founded byHolocaust survivors
Population
 (2022)[1]
974
Holocaust memorial in Netzer Sereni

Netzer Sereni (Hebrew: נֵצֶר סֶרֶנִי) is a kibbutz in central Israel. Located in the Shephelah between Be'er Ya'akov and Ness Ziona, it falls under the jurisdiction of Gezer Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 974.[1]

History

Kibbutz Netzer Sereni was founded in 1948 by Holocaust survivors liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp, who had established themselves in 1945 as "Kibbutz Buchenwald", an agricultural collective designed to prepare Jews for life in Palestine, the first such Hakhshara group established in Germany after the war.[2][3][4][5] The kibbutz was established on the land of the Palestinian village of Bir Salim, which was evacuated in 1948 under orders from authorities in nearby Ramle, despite requests from the local mukhtar to the Haganah asking for protection.[6][7] The name was changed later to Netzer by the Buchenwald members. The kibbutz was named Netzer Sereni after Enzo Sereni, a Jewish Italian intellectual, Zionist leader and Jewish Brigade officer. Sereni was one of the founders of Givat Brenner. He was parachuted into Nazi-occupied Italy in World War II, only to be immediately captured by the Germans and executed in Dachau concentration camp;[8] in Hebrew netzer means sprout, shoot or branch.

Between 1948 and 1951 antagonism between the Mapam and Mapai parties led to a split within the kibbutz movement,[9][10] and in 1952 120 Mapai members of kibbutz Givat Brenner broke away for ideological reasons and moved to Netzer Sereni.[8]

The 2023 Israeli musical film Victory focuses on two fictional couples from Netzer Sereni.[11]

Notable people

References

  1. ^ a b "Regional Statistics". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
  2. ^ Judith Tydor Baumel, Kibbutz Buchenwald: Survivors And Pioneers, Rutgers University Press, 1997, ISBN 9780813523378 [1]
  3. ^ Erhard Roy Wiehn (ed.), Wer hätte das geglaubt, Hartung-Gorre Verlag, 2010, Konstanz [2]
  4. ^ November 12, 1945, The dining room of Kibbutz Buchenwald, Germany, Yad Vashem website
  5. ^ March 1946, Members of the “Kibbutz Buchenwald” Pioneer Training Group in Antwerp, Belgium, Yad Vashem website
  6. ^ Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. p. xx, settlement #11. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
  7. ^ Khalidi, Walid (1992). All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. p. 371. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
  8. ^ a b Daniel Gavron (2000) The Kibbutz: Awakening from Utopia Rowman & Littlefield, p59
  9. ^ Kibbutz Movement in Israel Splits; Mapai Delegates Walk out of Mapam-Dominated Parley Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 23 May 1951
  10. ^ Marcia Drezon-Tepler (1990). Interest Groups and Political Change in Israel. State University of New York Press (SUNY Press). p. 104. ISBN 978-0-7914-0207-8. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  11. ^ Israeli Film Series: Victory HaMenatzchim Toronto Jewish Film Festival. Retrieved on 8 July 2024