Israel

The Journey to Palestine

Once he was reunited with his sisters, Naftali wanted above all to stay with them.  Bertha, Manya, and Zahava were all committed Zionists from before the war.  They had spent many hours participating in the Zionist youth group in Zmigrod and were eager to go to Palestine and build a Jewish homeland there.   Naftali himself was less committed.  The years in Cheder had left him more religious than his sisters and moreover, he never subscribed deeply to any ideology.

The Kibbutz was a collective of men and women aspiring to work together under socialist principles to create agricultural settlements in Palestine.  The group was led by charismatic representatives from the Zionist movement in Palestine/Israel.  Their object was to bring together motivated young Jews from Europe, teach them Hebrew, build them up physically and give them the skills to contribute to the budding Zionist enterprise.  At that time, Palestine was under the British Mandate which restricted the entry of Jews to Palestine.  This Kibbutz was part of the the illegal Aliyah, to smuggle more Jews into Palestine than the British would allow.