Gidon Ucko

Kibbutz Ein Harod hosts the 18th conference of the United Kibbutz. It is attended by representatives of the kibbutzim, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, and representatives of the government and the Knesset.

Between the mountains of Edom and the Red Sea, the younger and older workers of the United Kibbutz Brigade positioned themselves in order to build and settle the city of Eilat. Under the leadership of Beni Marshak, the organization’s secretaries are exploring the possibility of establishing permanent structures while supervising British activities in the area. Meanwhile, in the brigade camp, meals are being prepared and clothes are being thoroughly washed by the dedicated female brigade members. The brigade members take on tasks for the preparation of the settlement, in carpentry, fishing, planting gardens and orchards, and in the construction work of a Solel Boneh. The 12th grade students from the Kibbutzim come to be impressed by the pioneering work in the city.

The celebration of the 85th birthday of the sculptor Yaakov Luchansky, in the kibbutz where he lives, Givat Brenner. In the film, footage of the sculptors work process and his sculptures in the workshop at Luchanskis home.

“Everyone here is an artist, there is no problem with art movements” – this is the approach in the painting classes for adults and children at Kibbutz Naan. Footage from the Mishkan La’Omanut established in Ein Harod, from the graduation ceremony of the IDF officers’ course, a comedic ballet show inspired by Swan Lake in Kibbutz Naan, documentation of the construction of the new kibbutz institutions, photos of the ship “Palmach”, and the inauguration ceremony of the monument in memory of the fighters of the Harel Brigade in 1951.

The kindergarten children receive a gift from the kibbutzs shepherd a small lamb. A little girl named Michal feels a special connection to the lamb. During a special celebration, the lamb is given the name Pamonit and as a gift, it receives a red ribbon with a bell around its neck. One bright morning, the lamb disappears. Special search groups are organized, but without results. Time passes, but Michal cannot overcome her longing, and she continues her search in hopes of finding him.

The kibbutz artists and sculptors gathered in Naan and presented some of their works at an exhibition on the kibbutz lawn and in the exhibition halls. Representatives of the United Kibbutz presented their innovations at the agricultural machinery exhibition held in Haifa Bay. Every week, 10,000 copies of the “Bakibbutz” newspaper are edited, printed, and distributed among the kibbutzim.

Humit, the kibbutz Dachshund dog, travels to Tel Aviv to see the animals in the zoo. She sees the animals in small cages, unlike the kibbutz monkey, who roams freely and plays with the children, or the pair of porcupines that the children feed with milk from a bowl, and the deer that was adopted and became the friend of the kibbutz’s lamb. There are also turtles, cats, chamalions, and a giant peacock moth in Humit’s kibbutz “zoo,” all of them free to go wherever they like, except for the golden hamster. Bedouins arrived with their herds in the area next to the kibbutz, and the kibbutz children went to watch a camel calf being born.

Documentation of the innovative and strange agricultural technology in Kibbutz Hulata, footage from the dining room in Givat Brenner and the pantomime show based on it, and documentation of the twins’ conference of “The Kibbutz Family” exhibition in Tel Aviv.

The tenth annual camp of the members of the United Kibbutz in HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed is set up in Tarshiha, where the youth of the kibbutz get up early for group activities and sports games, until night, when they dance around the fire. And in Naan, the mature members set up a court to hold a hearing, comparing municipal education and kibbutz education. Finally, the acceptance ceremony to the kibbutz takes place.

A day after the Shomron operation, during which one of the members of the Nahal settlement in Ashlim died, the settlement soldiers held a military ceremony in the presence of the Minister of Internal Affairs, followed by a dance and singing performance. After the show, the settlement members and their guests dined while the desert dust filled the air, reminding them that there is still much work to be done to flourish the desolation. At the art center, established in Ein Harod by the painter Haim Atar, an inspiring exhibition of the painter Candido Portinari, dedicated to the battle against war, is presented. The field festival was celebrated on the last day of Sukkot in Kibbutz Heftziba, marking the work and harvest of the field.

The inauguration ceremony of the monument to the victims of the Harel Brigade of the Palmach during the War of Independence in the cemetery in Kiryat Anavim. A glimpse into the work of the fishermen of Kibbutz Nachsholim on their ship Nachshol, sailing towards the fishing grounds off the coast of Turkey. A veterinarian performs surgery and removes nails and glass from a cow’s stomach. And finally, a request not to throw away cigarette waste where it could cause a fire.

Modern machines and marble sculptures – documentation of the works in the port of Caesarea alongside the antiquities of Caesarea. Rehearsals of the orchestra of the United Kibbutz and the National Kibbutz, towards a concert for kibbutz workers. With locally made playgrounds, the kibbutzniks celebrate the 24th anniversary of Kibbutz Naan. About 3,000 people came to dine and participate in the 17th conference of the United Kibbutz in Givat Brenner, which opened with a musical performance, created by Benjamin Pintos. Besides discussions about the future of the kibbutz, in which Yitzhak Tabenkin, Zeev Tzur, and Israel Bar Yehuda participated, an exhibition of the United Kibbutz’s artists was being held. Hakibbutz Hameuchad – Sifriat Poalim Publishing Group Bookstore opened in Tel Aviv.

After the hero of this story saw hundreds of boys and girls participating in the first national camp of the Youth Companies Brigade that took place in Gardosh (Kibbutz Parod), he decided to join the movement. Taking part in the third camp, he, together with his fellow brigade members, set up the camp tents on the beach next to Kibbutz Gesher Haziv, and after a march, they prepared a big meal. The camp held sports activities and martial arts, games, and an art exhibition.

A new branch has been established in the Kibbutz entertainment field: magic. Harry the magician teaches the kibbutz members the secrets of the profession and encourages his enthusiastic students to invent their own tricks. Workers from the Hamburg shipyard complete building the first kibbutz cargo ship, the Palmach. The Palmach ship travels to its new mother port, Haifa port, already loaded with cargo and outfitted with the newest technology, while new ships are being transferred by land to the Eilat port to further develop it. Upon its arrival, a festive ceremony was held for its launch, in the presence of the former Palmach leader Beni Marshak, Northern Command Chief Yitzhak Rabin, kibbutz leader Yitzhak Tevankin, actress Hanna Rovina, Transportation Minister Moshe Carmel, and Mayor of Haifa Abba Hushi.

In Galil-Yam the colorful fabrics produced in the kibbutz’s factory are displayed, as well as Dr. Paul Reich’s large collection of butterflies, collected from all around the world. And in Givat Brenner, rehearsals are being held for International Workers’ Day on May 1, and the performers – the youth of the kibbutz are practicing the demonstration exercises.

Twelfth grade boys and girls from Kibbutz HaMeuhad gather in Givat Brenner and go on a trip. They walk in the Red Canyon and the southern Negev, until they reach Eilat, where they learn about the red sea and its special fish, and after dinner return home.

A tour of the small kibbutz Gadot, whose location, on the banks of the pastoral Jordan River, demands its residents be alert at all times to bombings by the Syrian army. However, the life of the kibbutz is not harmed – the children play, the youth of the kibbutz dance, and the work in the orchards and the farm does not stop.

An Israeli tour in the Golan Heights landscapes immediately after the Six Day War in which the area was occupied. The visitors go by a variety of interesting places, from the Syrian city of Quneitra to the inviting Ram Pool, to the Hermon-Banias River and Pan Cave.

A short children’s film based on the first children’s book by the author Amos Bar. Hillel loves tractors more than any other child on the kibbutz. A friend on the farm who understands the boy’s spirit gives him a ride on the tractor almost every morning on his way out to the fields. One day, during a trip with his friends, Hillel discovers that the tractor broke down in the middle of the field. He decides to separate from the group of children and sneak up to the tractor, which is standing alone, while the tractor driver goes to fix the oil pump. He sits on the tractor and plays with the levers. Soon enough, panic ensues as his friends, from a distance, hear the noise of the tractor in the field, which is moving on its own. After a dramatic chase, the tractor stops, and Hillel is saved. Hillel, who leaves the impression that he will be a successful farmer when he grows up, is forced to promise for now that he will not get on a tractor for the next 7 years.

A glimpse of a kibbutznik rest day, if there can be one at all, at Kibbutz Mahanaim. A visit to the barn with a white shirt leads straight to a visit to the kibbutz warehouse, and from there to the children’s home, orchards, and garage, and in the afternoon a cup of friendly coffee with the fishermen.