Avshalom Yakovi

From the 19th century until today

The building of a wall and tower, the draining of Beit She’an Valley’s swamp, confrontations with neighbors, and other pieces of history preserved in Avshalom Yakovi’s photo album. A final peek

Nadav Man, Bitmuna|Published: 11.13.06 , 09:40

The Yakovi family’s photo album documents moments from the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the renewed settling in Israel.

In the last chapter, we traveled with the photos to the Zionist congress in London, the Beit Kerem neighborhood, Mount Hermon, Damascus, the Meir Shephia colony and more.

Before you is another and final batch of photographs collected along the way and over the years by Avshalom Yakovi, the youngest member of the family.

1934. Avshalom and his brother Yaakov sent to training at a Kibbutz

Dvorah, Avshalom’s sister, standing by an irrigation pipe.

Part of Avshalom’s group leave for work to establish a potash factory.

Catching a ride. Group members on their way to the northern Dead Sea to establish a potash factory.

Kibbutz Maoz Haim was established in 1937 as a tower and stockade settlement, and Avshalom was among its founders. For years he was in charge of the cultivation of field crops and he was one of the first to grow cotton in the Beit She’an valley.

Nearby Maoz Haim was a Roman road attaching it to the district’s city Skitopolis, now Beit She’an. The photograph shows a milestone found in a kibbutz field.

Avshalom was interested in the archeology of Israel and studied it. In 1955, during a company committee researching Israel, a Jordanian soldier opened fire against committee participants. The photograph shows the evacuation of the injured.