“Without Mikve Israel we would not have a country,” declared Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion at the birth of the nation in 1948.
What is so important about a place that most of us have probably never heard of?
Mikve Israel was the first school of agriculture that started in 1875 – that’s 150 years ago – long before there was a state or even that many Jews in the Land! Yet this small seed of a dream to grow a nation in a barren land that would be loved by Jews and people around the world sprouted up from this tiny farming community dedicated to raising a nation with it’s feet on the ground, hands in the earth and hearts holding on dearly to this God-given promised land.
That is the dream that came true, as Ronen Tzafrir, Director of Mikve, told Israel Today in an exclusive interview to help us understand the crucial role this 150-year-old school of agriculture played in creating the Israel we know today.
“Mikve produced the famous Halutzim, or pioneers, who built the land of Israel,” Tzafrir began. “In fact, 50 of the leading agricultural settlements in Israel today, including kibbutzim, moshavim and other farming communities, were all founded by graduates of Mikve,” he pointed out.
To understand just how important agriculture and Mikve are to the Land of Israel we need to remember that all these farms were planted along the borders not only for food production, but as a defense against the surrounding enemy Arab armies. In a reversal of Isaiah’s famous prophecy, Jews coming back to the land had to “lay down their plows and pick up swords.”
These were the first days of practical Zionism. Young people learned how to drive tractors, milk cows, find water, raise crops and ride horses. “From the beginning we have been a boarding school connecting children from the youngest age to the cycles of life. Together we learned how to cooperate with nature and with one another with the disciplines children need to get up and feed animals, gather eggs on time in order to provide for the community,” Tzafrir explained.
“Our children needed to understand the history of our people and the reason we are here in this new homeland, to identify deeply with the earth under their feet in order to live on and care for this land,” he continued. “We even created those first kova tembal hats sewn from scraps that became symbolic of our national commitment to hard work and tilling the land, turning the desert into an oasis,” Tzfirir smiled, referring to the “bone-head” caps worn by Israeli famers (and tourists) to this day.
The first vineyards were also planted here, though Tzfirir admits that “we couldn’t compete with Baron Rothschild’s vineyards when he came along.” Mikve imported the first eucalyptus trees we find all over the country, which were originally used to drain swamps and provide cover to roads from air attacks, and now provide shaded forests from Dan to Beersheva.
I wanted to get a better idea of what role Mikve might still play in the modern State of Israel, where start-ups and technology are new “fields” in which most Israelis toil. I asked Field Manager Yehuda Chaki, who graduated from Mikve in 1972 and has been a part of the community since he was 13-years-old.
“We are still settling our borders and defending our lands from terrorist infiltrations and attacks. Most of the modern agricultural settlements along our borders are supported by our graduates,” Yehuda said. “And we continue to need to be self-sufficient for our food, as our closest neighbors boycott us and many countries won’t trade with our people in Judea and Samaria. Our future is always unsure,” he continued. “Did you know that Israel is number two in the world in agriculture technology?” he pointed out with pride. He then went on to tell me about “suitcase agriculture” where the most disease-resistant and water-efficient seeds are taken in suitcases from Israel to countries around the world where they can triple local food production. “This is my life and my love of Israel, this land and the open fields, our home that we must protect and keep beautiful.”
Sitting on his tractor in the shade of those original eucalyptus trees, a teacher with a class of more than 100 7th graders approached. “This is where I get to impact these kids with a love for the land of Israel and appreciation of the rich heritage and culture of the pioneers who built this amazing country,” Israel Levi shouted up to us. “I have been bringing thousands of school children here from across the country to work the fields and learn to connect with this land, the land of our fathers,” he said smiling from under his kova tembel.
Since 1875, Mikve Israel has been at the forefront of preserving the land, traditions and values of each new generation in Israel, teaching them to take responsibility for producing enough food each year from every dunam of land to meet the needs of our people.
Mikve students farm more than 3.3 million sq. meters of land using their own underground water wells in a self-sustaining community not connected to the municipal grid. In 1976, Israel passed the Mikve Law to safeguard the land that sits on the outskirts of Tel Aviv for the “preservation of traditional values being passed on the next generation.”
Today, there are a total of 1,500 high school students in addition to the boarding students studying agriculture at Mikve, including Sabras, Orthodox Jews, Ethiopian immigrants, Druze and Muslims.
The name Mikve Israel is taken from Jeremiah 17:13, and reflects the true hope of each and every generation in Israel. “The Hope of Israel”–it is one of the most beautiful names for God in the Hebrew Bible.
