A walk through Mazkeret Batya and the First Aliyah
Mazkeret Batya is a charming town on the coastal plain, located near Rehovot, that began in 1883 as a small farming community during the First Aliya. Its original 11 settlers were experienced farmers and all were religious. The settlement was originally called Ekron, but was renamed Mazkeret Batya four years later in memory of Baron Edmond de Rothschild’s mother Betty von Rothschild. With the help of the town’s museums and other buildings, the establishment of this settlement and the role of Rabbi Mohilever can be recreated on a circular walk. A tour from the village museum, if it can be arranged, does allow for a more extensive visit, as the guide from the museum has access to more of the old buildings. The Mohilever Museum is separate from the village museum. The movie shown there can definitely add to your visit, although opening of the museum needs to be pre-arranged.
The beginnings of Mazkaret Batya were somewhat different from that of the other seven agricultural settlements established early during the First Aliyah, in that Baron Edmond de Rothschild was asked to support this venture from its outset to be a model for future settlement. The Baron had bailed out other settlements after they had already gotten into difficulties. It will be recalled that one of the aims of the First Aliyah was to demonstrate that successful agricultural settlement in then Palestine could be achieved. The Baron enthusiastically agreed to support 11 middle-aged settlers with farming experience (which was unusual in Russia). Nevertheless, they had to pay their own way to Palestine and had to agree to pay back all loans they received. Because they knew the type of agricultural conditions they were looking for, it took them a while to find land with the heavy soil they considered optimal for growing grains. Initially, they came without their families. The person who persuaded the Baron to finance this venture was Rabbi Samuel Mohilever.
Because of his role in envisaging this agricultural settlement, and the Hibbat Zion/Hovevei Zion movement in general, Rabbi Samuel Mohilever is discussed further on this webpage. He lived in Eastern Europe. During the Holocaust his grave was desecrated and it was decided to reinter his bones in Mazkeret Batya. His mausoleum is in the town’s cemetery and can be visited.
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Rabbi Samuel Mohilever (1824-1898) - the rabbi of the Hovevei Zion
Rabbi Samuel Mohilever was a rabbi who lived in the Russian Empire and who moved against the tide for an orthodox rabbi of those times in being heavily involved in Zionist activities. He also encouraged secular Jewish education in addition to yeshiva education so that young people would be able to earn a living.
He was born in what is now Hlybokaye in Belarus and was recognized as a child prodigy in Talmudic studies. He studied in the famed Valozhyn Yeshiva and by aged 18 was ordained a rabbi after only 6 months of study. By then he was already married (as was the custom in those days). Because he did not wish to live off Torah, he went into the linen trade. However, after 4 years he relented and accepted the position of rabbinic leader of his home town. He subsequently accepted rabbinic positions in larger communities.
During his first year as a rabbi in Suwalki, he befriended an activist who had formed the first group of Hovevei Zion (lovers of Zion). Its movement Hibbat Zion would spread throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Although there was liberalization in Western Europe, the years 1881 to 1882 were a time of pogroms in Russia, and this led to considerable emigration from Eastern Europe (as the Russian authorities intended), primarily to America. Rabbi Mohilever travelled extensively in the Russian empire encouraging immigration to then Palestine. He joined with Leon Pinsker in consolidating the activities of the many groups of Hovevei Zion/Hibbat Zion.
As part of his fundraising activities, he met with Baron Edmond de Rothschild and succeeded in obtaining his support for a new settlement in Palestine. This would be called Ekron. Especially after taking up a rabbinic position in Radom, he took a leadership role in Hibbat Zion and became its honorary president.
His approach to Zionism was unique for that time for a religious rabbi. He was much influenced by the ideas of Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer, and he believed that the Jewish people were at the beginning of redemptive and messianic times. He had no problem in working with non-religious people in pursuit of Zionist goals and was able to work amicably with the secularist Leon Pinsker, who was chairman of the organization.
In many respects, his ideas foreshadowed those of Rabi Avraham Kook, who was similarly influenced by the ideas of Haskalah, who also believed that he was living in redemptive and thus messianic times, and who saw non-orthodox Jews as essential partners in Jewish redemption. He thus strongly disagreed with the many orthodox rabbis of that time who wanted nothing to do with the Zionist enterprise because of its non-orthodox participation and leadership, and hence its non-messianic basis.
In 1890, at age 66, he made a trip to Palestine to see first-hand the activities of the Hovevei Zion. He travelled throughout the country, visiting established Jewish communities and the new Jewish settlements, including Ekron. He also participated in buying land for the new settlement of Rehovot.
He was the first orthodox rabbi to support the Zionist activities of Theodor Herzl, despite Herzl’s secular leaning. They communicated with each other, and Herzl regarded Rabbi Joseph Mohilever as “the first political Zionist.” Rabbi Mohileger was invited to address the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897, but was unable to attend because of his age and ill health. However, he sent his grandson, Rabbi Joseph Mohilever, who read out his grandfather’s speech. This included the following messianic aspirations: “But I say that our faith and hope, as ever, so now, is that our Messiah will come and gather in all the scattered of Israel and instead of being wanderers upon the face of the earth, ever moving from place to place, we shall dwell as a nation in our own country . . . We shall be the pride and honor of all the peoples of the earth. This is our faith and hope as foretold by our prophets and seers of blessed memory.” He regarded the steps that were being taken at that century as the first steps in the messianic redemption.
Towards the end of his life, and following differences with the secular leadership of Hibbat Zion, Rabbi Mohileger created a new organization, Mizrachi, that was intended to be the spiritual center of the Zionist movement for orthodox Jews. Mizrachi stands for merkaz ruchani or spiritual center and was the foundation of the Religious Zionist movement. This organization was refounded in 1901 by Rabbi Jacob Reines and other disciples of Rabbi Mohilever and was part of the Zionist Organization.
Rabbi Mohilever was tangentially involved in the shmitta dispute that the villagers of Ekron had with the Baron and that rocked the rabbinic world in and outside Palestine. When their first shmitta year arrived, the biblically mandated rest of the land every seventh year, the villagers refused to work the land. However, the Baron insisted that they follow the ruling of Rabbi Mohilever and some other rabbis that selling the land to a non-Jew for the year was a legitimate way of working around this prohibition. The villagers followed the halachic ruling of the rabbis of Jerusalem who held that this was not halachically valid, even though shmitta at this time was considered to be ea rabbinic and not biblical decree. The Baron cut them off for the year, and they had to rely on donations for support, although the relationship was patched up after the shmitta year.
Tour of Mazkeret Batya:
Distance: 2.5 km
Time: About 1 hour of walking (not including any museums)
Type of tour. Circular
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Our walk starts at the synagogue, the Beit Knesset Hagadol (the Great Synagogue) (A). It is located on the site of the community’s original synagogue, which had to be demolished because of structural problems. This synagogue was opened in 1928 and was gifted to the community by the Rothschild family. On the façade of the building, you can make out a seven-branched menorah and tablets of the Ten Commandments. On the roof is a nine-branched Chanukah menorah. Unless you come with a pre-arranged group, a tour of the museum, or it is time for prayer services, the doors will probably be locked, although you can peep through the windows to view inside.
Directions: Enter into Waze “The Great Synagogue,” and click on “The Great Synagogue, Mazkeret Batya, Israel.” There is probably parking at the beginning of Sderot Eliyahu, which is a continuation of Sderot Rothschild after the traffic circle by the synagogue. There may also be some parking on Sderot Rothschild not far from the synagogue.
On the other side of the circle is the HaRav Mohilever Museum (B). It is housed in one of the settlement’s original buildings, actually a former cowshed. This Zionist Heritage Learning Center) was established in 1996, after the remains of Rabbi Shmuel Mohiliver had been brought to Israel and reinterred in Mazkeret Batya's cemetery.
There is not a lot to see in this one-room museum. All of Rav Mohaliver’s writings were destroyed in a fire in Bialystok, where he had his final rabbinical position., and as mentioned he never lived in Palestine, although he did come here once for a visit. There are signs in the room with information about the conventions of the Chovevei Tzion movement and enlarged pictures of the people at these conventions, including, of course, Rabbi Mohilever in the front row. The highlight of the museum is a short movie about this influential rabbi that can be viewed in English.
Admission. You will need to prearrange a visit, possibly with a group. Call 08-934 0034. This is their website: https://museum-mohaliver.org.il/hafalot-php/
You can also see the movie online and a transcript at https://museum-mohaliver.org.il/zionist-rabbi/ although you will miss out on the atmospherics!
The Rav Mohilever Museum is a one-room museum in an original settlement building (a cowshed).
The movie is the main attraction of this museum.
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Now walk along Rothschild St to the Eran Shamir Village Museum © (turn right after exiting the Mohilever Museum), at 40 Rothschild St. It is easy to locate as there is a red British phone booth outside the building.
This museum is in one of the first public buildings in the town, the clerk’s office, built in 1885. It contains restored rooms from early days, pictures, farm tools, a smithy, and an ark from the first synagogue. None of the explanations are in English. An informative 17-minute movie can be viewed in the building next door at 38 Rothschild. This building once functioned as the pharmacy for the settlement. The movie is in Hebrew, but can be viewed with English subtitles. The museum admission charge is 20 NIS for adults and 10 NIS for seniors. It is open Sunday to Thursday 8 a.m. to 1.30 p.m., on Monday also from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and on Saturday 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., but check on these times. Group tours can be pre-booked, including in English. Participation in one of the tours of the museum is well worthwhile, as this includes not only the museum but other old buildings that are not otherwise open to the public. Their phone number is 08-934 9525. For their website click here:
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The movie touches on the agricultural difficulties encountered, but does not elaborate. As anticipated, the land that was bought was excellent for growing grains. A mill was constructed and their wheat sold well. However, each farmer’s holding did not provide enough income from grains. The administration persuaded the farmers to diversify and plant fruit trees, since these had done well elsewhere. Also, to plant mulberry trees for producing silk. The latter venture did not succeed, and the trees did not grow well in the heavy soil. They did grow well in sandy soil elsewhere, but this had to be established through trial and error. However, vines grew well and much of the land today grows vineyards.
If you are participating in a tour, you will be taken across the road to one of the first buildings erected in this settlement. The Turkish authorities were not supportive of this Jewish venture, and only gave permission for a small number of farm buildings to be built, and not residential houses. Nevertheless, three-floor houses were built, and the Turkish authorities were bribed into calling them farm buildings. A number of families would have lived in each house. Behind this house is a reconstructed smithery and after this, in another building, one can see a display of interesting objects, including the Jewish metal plough that was invented in Mazkeret Batya.​
Two of the displays on the first floor of the museum.
The movie is shown at 38 Rothschild. This building was formerly the pharmacy for the community.
One of the few original homes, officially registered as a farm building.​
The Baron's Farmhouse erected in 1892 and in a more magnificent style than the other buildings of the settlement.
The reconstructed well. Water was stored in the adjacent pool.
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The next stop is the Old Well (E). This can be reached by turning left at HaMeyasim St., and the well is at the end of this road. However, a more picturesque route is to take the tayelet at the side of the museum (away from the telephone kiosk) through an open metal green gate. This leads to a pretty square with a café and a restaurant. Continue on the second part of the tayelet through another open green gate. Turn right at the end of the tayelet on Dov Shamir St. Go past the magnificent Baron’s Farmhouse (D), and then turn left onto HaMeyasdim St. and walk towards the well.
The Baron’s Farmhouse was erected in 1892 and was used primarily for storage, but also had living accommodation and offices. The building has been restored and is now used for exhibitions and conferences.
This well is a reconstruction of the original. It was dug to a depth of 30 meters at the time of the original habitation of the settlement. The mechanism was operated by an animal and the households collected the water. Water was also led by overhead pipes to the pool, which functioned as a reservoir, and also as a mikvah. It was eventually replaced by a motorized pumping system and this well was abandoned. In the meantime, a number of other wells had been dug. The water had to be filtered to be used for drinking. The well is now functional and water can be brought up if you come with a guide from the museum.
Operating the pump with the beam (the key has to be opened by a guide).
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Continue on HaMeyasdim St until the end of the road. Turn left onto Netiv HaShayarot. On the corner with HaGoren St. is the HaBaron Garden (F). Its entrance is on HaGoren St.
The entrance gate of the garden is impressive with pictures of the Baron and his wife and a bust of the Baron. The park, though, is a rather ordinary community park. There are a lot of picnic benches, a bar at certain times, but no children’s play equipment. The park is all that is left of a much larger park that covered 25 acres.
The entrance to Gan HaBaron from HaGoren St.
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Turn right out of the park and continue on the continuation of HaGoren, which is Sderot Motta Gur. Go past the first roundabout. Soon after the roundabout you will see the entry to the cemetery on side of the road on your left.
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The tombs of the original settlers are in white curved structures, which are not at all like the tombs used today. However, this is what was used in Russia. Their gravestones have inscriptions describing their pioneering activities. A short distance from the entrance to the cemetery is the red-brick mausoleum in which Rav Mohilever is interred (G). You can enter this building. There are restrooms here.​
The mausoleum for the reinterred remains of Rav Shmuel Mohilever. The building can be seen from the entrance of the cemetry.
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Turn back onto Sderot Motta Gur and HaGoren. Sderot Menachem Begin joins to the first roundabout you pass and has a number of eating establishments. Turn right when you reach the T-junction with Rothschild. The Synagogue and your starting point is by the traffic circle.
Map of walk through Mazkeret Batya
A. Beit Knesset Hagadol; B. Mohilever Museum; C. Eran Shamir Village Museum; D. Baron’s Farmhouse; E. The well; F. HaBaron Garden; G. Mausolem of Rav Mohilever.