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Torah V’Avoda:

The Religious Farmers

of Sa’ad and Alumim

25% of Israel’s grain and 30% of its vegetables are grown in the Region of Revival. Among the many agricultural
kibbutzim and moshavim in the region are several religious kibbutzim. Rabbi Aron White spoke with Eric Isaacson from
Kibbutz Alumim and Rabbi Eliav Lazar of Kibbutz Sa’ad to learn more about these Religious Zionist communities.

hen Eric Isaacson made Aliyah Kibbutz Sa’ad is a religious kibbutz that
from Manchester in 1972, Kibbutz was founded decades earlier, before the
Alumim was only a few years old. founding of the State of Israel. “In 1948,
W“We had grown up on the Bnei Sa’ad faced relentless attacks from the
Akiva ethos of Torah v’Avoda, and a garin Egyptians, who destroyed most of the
of us organized to move to Alumim to kibbutz, so in 1950 Sa’ad was re-estab-
work on the new religious kibbutz. Alumim lished in its current location,” explains
was founded by Bnei Akiva in Israel, and Rav Eliav, a rabbi and farmer from Sa’ad.
groups of young people from Bnei Akiva in “There is one building still standing from
England and South America made Aliyah the original kibbutz, which has been turned
to settle it and to work the land growing into a museum that tells the story of the
crops and vegetables, to cultivate milk religious kibbutzim in the War of Indepen-
and more.” Despite being less than four dence. Today, you can see on that building
kilometers from the Gaza Strip, the secu- both the bullet marks from the War of
rity situation was different than it is now. Independence in 1948, as well the bullet
“Back in the ’70s, it was quite common for holes from the fighting on Simchat Torah.”
people from Alumim to go to the beach in The agricultural processes of a religious
Gaza. The main reminders of war were kibbutz are tied to numerous halachic ques-
when we worked the fields and would find tions. “Already when Rav Kook was Chief
unexploded bombs from the Six Day War, Rabbi, before the establishment of the
and sometimes even from World War I!” State, there were numerous agricultural Rav Eliav in the fields of Kibbutz Sa’ad.

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