Trip to the North

We left early this morning and headed north to kibbutz Ein Shemer. In 1927, the first pioneers of HaShomer HaTzair arrived at the site. The group consisted of 18 women and 36 men, all in their late teens and early twenties. These youngsters, from Poland, left behind parents, homes, and future careers in order to fulfill their dream of revitalizing the Jewish people in its ancient homeland, to work the land with their own hands and to make the Zionist vision come true. We then made our way to Caesarea. The town was built by Herod the Great about 25–13 BCE as the port city Caesarea Maritima. After that we visited Ramat Hanadiv where Edmond de Rothschild and his wife are buried.. For his Jewish philanthropy Baron Edmond became known as "Hanadiv HaYadu'a" (Hebrew for "The Known Benefactor" or "The Famous Benefactor") and in his memory his son bequeathed the funds to construct the building for the Knesset. We ended our day strolling through Zikhron Ya'akov which was founded in December 1882 by 100 Jewish pioneers from Romania. 

In 1883, Baron Edmond James de Rothschild became the patron of the settlement and drew up plans for its residential layout and agricultural economy.