Hakhshara
Hakhshara (Hebrew: הַכְשָׁרָה; also transliterated Hachsharah, Hachshara or Hakhsharah) is a Hebrew word that literally means "preparation". The term is used for training programs and agricultural centres in Europe and elsewhere. At these centers Zionist youth and young adults would learn vocational skills necessary for their emigration to Israel and subsequent life in kibbutzim.[2] Such camps existed before World War II, and still exist today.
Post-war era
Following the end of World War II, a new wave of Hakhshara centers was established to serve Jewish Holocaust survivors, often referred to as Sh'erit ha-Pletah (the surviving remnant). These programs were primarily located in and around Displaced Persons (DP) camps in Allied-occupied Germany, Austria, and Italy.[3]
The primary goal of these post-war Hakhsharot was to provide agricultural and vocational training to prepare survivors intending on Aliyah (immigration to Mandatory Palestine) and life in a kibbutz. The first such group established in Germany after the war was Kibbutz Buchenwald, an agricultural collective formed by survivors of the Buchenwald concentration camp.[4]
Italy served as a major transit hub for survivors journeying toward Mandatory Palestine, and approximately 45 Hakhsharot and kibbutzim operated within or alongside the Italian DP camps.[5]
These programs were often supported by international relief organizations. For example, by 1947, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) maintained 49 Hakhshara camps in Hungary alone, providing agricultural training for nearly 6,000 Jewish youths preparing for emigration.[6]
Modern era
Nowadays, these programs are usually based on kibbutzim in Israel for youth who are in their gap year, between finishing high-school and starting university, and include exploring Israel and studying Israeli culture. This was also true of the religious programs, that until a few decades were based on a religious kibbutz and typically contained a period of Torah study. Nowadays, the religious programs still incorporate a period on a religious kibbutz, but are more diverse in what they offer, see at Bnei Akiva website (here).
List of Hakhshara centres
Pre-war Germany
- Schniebinchen in Germany (now Świbinki, Poland).[7][8]
- Landwerk Neuendorf at Steinhöfel, Germany
- Altona-Blankenese at Hamburg, Germany[9]
- Fraustadt in Posen-West Prussia, Germany, now Wschowa, Poland
- Markenhof in Germany
- Marx family at Gruessen (now Gemunden, Wohra), Germany [10]
Italy
- Sciesopoli in Italy.[11]
Netherlands
- Werkdorp Nieuwesluis in the Netherlands
- Westerbork (village)[12]
Pre-war Poland
- over 200 hakhsharas[13]
- Iwanie Puste and nearby village of Tzygany, now in Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine[14]
Pre-war Lithuania
Post-war Australia
- Springvale, Victoria and later Toolamba, Australia[16]
See also
- HeHalutz, organization
- Youth aliyah
- Youth village
References
- ^ "File:PikiWiki Israel 1125 Education in Israel ביתר רומניה.jpg". Wikimedia Commons.
בית"רים עוסקים בניפוי חיטה בחוות ההכשרה ע"ש זאב ז'בוטינסקי בזסטבנה, רומניה, 1946 (Betar members engaged in sifting wheat at the Ze'ev Jabotinsky training farm in Zastavna, Romania, 1946.)
- ^ Almogi, Yosef (1982). Total Commitment. Associated University Presses. p. 13. ISBN 9780845347492.
The aim of such training programs— collectively called Hakhshara ("preparation") in Hebrew — was to prepare young Jews for settlement in Israel.
- ^ "The Return to Life in the Displaced Persons Camps, 1945-1956". Yad Vashem.
- ^ "Hakhshara as a Place of Remembrance". Hachschara als Erinnerungsort.
After the end of the Second World War there were once again Hakhshara trainings in Germany, primarily around the displaced persons camps. There, mainly Jews from Eastern Europe who had survived the extermination camps were preparing for a life in Palestine (and from 1948 in Israel). At the same time, there was the Gehringshof farm estate, also known as kibbutz Buchenwald, which was partially formed and influenced by Holocaust survivors from the former Hakhsharot Ahrensdorf and Neuendorf.
- ^ "DP Camps and Hachshara Centers in Italy after the War". Yad Vashem.
- ^ "JDC in the 1940s". JDC Archives.
In 1947, JDC maintained 49 hachsharot in Hungary, providing agricultural training for almost 6,000 youths.
- ^ Geschichte vor Ort: Erinnerungskultur im Land Brandenburg für die Zeit von 1933 bis 1990, Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur, Brandenburg, 2009, page 44
- ^ "Schniebinchen, Germany, 1938, Youngsters conversing through a window, at a camp for training for Aliyah (immigration to Eretz Israel). - The Sonnenfeld collection of photos documenting Jewish life in prewar Germany". Retrieved 2012-05-17.
- ^ Stolpersteine Hamburg, Betti Frank, née Levi, born 1894
- ^ "Jüdische Gemeinde - Grüsen (Hessen)". www.xn--jdische-gemeinden-22b.de. Retrieved 2019-05-23.
- ^ Office of Survivor Affairs - Nina Merrick
- ^ U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, A young woman works in a kibbutz hachshara in Westerbork in The Netherlands. Photograph Number: 43171
- ^ "O kibucach w Polsce mało kto wie. A było ich 200 - największy na warszawskim Grochowie". 8 January 2024.
- ^ Skla on the River Zbrucz: A History of the Former Skala Jewish Community, Skala Research Group and Skala Benevolent Society, 2009, pp. 304, 306
- ^ "Pin on Yad Vashem Photo Archives Two".
- ^ "Hachshara: An Australian 'Kibbutz'" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2021-11-01.
