Mishmar HaEmek () is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the western Jezreel Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Megiddo Regional Council. Mishmar HaEmek is one of the few kibbutzim that have not undergone privatization and still follow the traditional collectivist and socialist kibbutz model. In , it had a population of . At least six former members of the Knesset hail from Mishmar HaEmek.
The area was acquired by the Jewish community as part of the Sursock Purchase. The kibbutz was established in 1926 by members of the HaShomer HaTzair ("The Young Guard") movement, who mostly came from Europe to Mandatory Palestine during the Third Aliyah. It was the first Jewish settlement in the southern part of the Jezreel Valley, built as part of Jewish National Fund efforts to settle the valley. It quickly became a center of HaShomer HaTzair, especially after the Kibbutz Arzi movement chose to build their first regional school in the kibbutz.
As a HaShomer HaTzair stronghold, the kibbutz housed many pioneers of other kibbutzim (see gar'in) and instructed them before they established their own kibbutzim. In April 1948, during the 1947–48 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, the kibbutz was the epicenter of the Battle of Mishmar HaEmek, successfully repelling the first major offensive of the Arab Liberation Army commanded by Fawzi al-Qawuqji.
The economy of the kibbutz has historically been focused on agriculture. Since 1950, it has also operated a plastics factory in partnership with kibbutz Gal'ed, which has become a central part of the kibbutz's economy. The forest near the kibbutz was planted by its residents and is listed as a biosphere reserve by UNESCO. Two ancient settlements dating back to prehistoric times have been found in the vicinity of the kibbutz.
History Establishment During the Fourth Aliyah (1924–1928), a time of Jewish migration to the British-controlled Mandatory Palestine, the Jezreel Valley was the top priority of the Jewish National Fund (JNF). The fund wanted to settle the arable valley in order to establish a significant Jewish agricultural community and to create a contiguous bloc of Jewish settlements connecting Haifa with the existing bloc of Jewish settlements between Afula and Beit She'an.
In 1924 the JNF purchased lands owned by the Christian Lebanese Sursock family near Nahalal. Afterwards, it decided to expand south, and in 1926 purchased most of the land of Abu Shusha, where Bedouins and Turkmens lived.
The pioneers of Mishmar HaEmek came to Mandatory Palestine during the Third Aliyah. They were Polish Jews from Galicia and were members of three groups who graduated from HaShomer HaTzair movement, one from the town of Afula and two from the Jerusalem area.
On 21 January 1922, they, along with some unaffiliated people, joined in the Neve Sha'anan neighborhood of Haifa to form the gar'in (, . "Seed/Grain") of a future settlement. It was initially named "Kibbutz Bet" (Bet is the second letter in Hebrew. "Kibbutz Aleph" of the movement later became the kibbutz of Beit Alfa).
At its formation the gar'in had 80 members, but a year later, the number had been reduced to 65. In the summer of 1922 they moved to Nahalal in the Jezreel Valley where they participated in swamp drying and road paving. At Nahalal some members suffered from diseases and the lack of a stable livelihood.
By early 1924, the member count was at 60 as old members left and new members joined. The main reason for leaving was the difficulty of trying to adjust to the kibbutz lifestyle. Some left because they wished to continue their academic career, others because of family issues and some because of ideological opposition.
In 1925 the kibbutz, which then consisted of 60 adults and six children, moved to Afula, where they did road paving and worked in construction.
Unification with Kibbutz Dalet
In Afula, the kibbutz united with another HaShomer HaTzair gari'n called "Kibbutz Dalet" (the fourth letter in Hebrew), which was formed in the town of Hadera in 1924.
The unification ceremony was performed like a Jewish wedding, in which the "groom" (Kibbutz Bet) and the "bride" (Kibbutz Dalet), were betrothed and a Ketubah (Jewish marriage contract) was read in front of the crowd. On 3 November 1926, the members (numbering 90 after the unification) were given the land next to the Abu Shusha.
Initially, only 15 men and women left Afula to Abu Shusha and settled in a nearby khan, from where they began preparing for agricultural work. In the next year, two mules were bought and 120 dunams of fields of wheat and barley were sowed. That time the members left the khan and began building the new settlement in its modern location, making history as a single Jewish settlement in this part of the valley.
In November 1928 the kibbutz was renamed "Kibbutz Mishmar HaEmek" as proposed by Menachem Ussishkin, after its members could not agree on a name. In the meantime, the members who remained in Afula continued their work there paving roads and constructing the Great Synagogue of Afula. The construction of a synagogue raised some ideological issues for some of the members who were mostly secular socialists.
On 26 August 1929, during the 1929 Palestine riots, the kibbutz was attacked by Arab rioters equipped with firearms. The members, with the aid of Arab policemen, managed to fend off the rioters. British policemen ordered the kibbutz to evacuate and promised to take care for their property, and so the members left the following day.
On 28 August, Arab rioters burned the kibbutz's barn, uprooted trees, stole corn from the fields and vandalized two gravestones in the kibbutz's cemetery. It was the only time in its history where it was abandoned, and it joined 16 other Jewish communities that were also abandoned during the riots. Unlike others, Mishmar HaEmek was resettled six days later. The evacuation was intended to protect human lives, but many saw it as abandonment. (28 August 1929). Jerusalem Faced Grave Crisis Tuesday Noon As Arabs Renewed Attacks The Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved on 22 February 2025 In early 1930, the rest of the members left Afula and joined the members in Mishmar HaEmek, which brought the population of the kibbutz to 101, with 85 adults and 16 children.
Construction and expansion
In 1931, Shomeria School was established. It was the first regional educational institution of the Kibbutz Artzi movement. It operated as a boarding school and put into practice HaShomer HaTzair's socialist ideology, creating an independent "children's society." The pupils saw their parents only on holidays or special visiting days throughout the year. The children had a daily schedule, with the morning devoted to education, the afternoon to labor, and the evening to cultural activities.
Originally, the school was housed in temporary cabins. Later in 1931, the Kibbutz Artzi movement commissioned a large concrete building for the school which was planned and designed by Joseph Neufeld. It was built only in 1937 after the needed funds were raised. The construction was done by the kibbutz members to reduce costs.
It was known as the "Children's House" and when completed it was among the biggest structures in the region and thus also nicknamed "the Big House". Its chosen location was on a hill overlooking the houses of the kibbutz, symbolizing the importance of education. The institution provided education to four other kibbutz communities that were established in the Jezreel Valley including Beit Alfa, Sarid, Mizra and Merhavia, later joined by children from kibbutz Gan Shmuel and youth from the Youth Aliyah. In the following years, in addition to the school, the members also constructed a water tower, built a cowshed, planted a vineyard and various fruit trees and dug wells. The JNF wanted to cement the Jewish ownership over lands it had purchased. Because third of Mishmar HaEmek's territory consisted of rocky hills unsuited for agriculture it had a policy of planting forests and Mishmar HaEmek followed this policy and in the 1930s planted some 50,000 trees east of the kibbutz. The forest was also projected to provide material for local wood industry, and for decades provided a source of income for the kibbutz.
Berta Guggenheimer was an activist who planned playgrounds all over the country and with her niece Irma Lindheim, a member of the kibbutz set up a children's playground in the kibbutz. In the 1930s there was an arrangement to allow Arab children from the nearby villages to visit and play with the kibbutz children making it a unique place for the kibbutzim movement.
In the 1930s, Mishmar HaEmek absorbed two separate groups of HaShomer HaTzair. The first group had 17 people and was from the United States and first settled in the kibbutz in 1931. In 1933 their number rose to 30 and in 1934 they moved to an area near the town of Hadera. Another group settled between 1937 and 1938 and later established the kibbutz of Hatzor in 1946.
By 1947, Mishmar HaEmek had a population of 550. The Jewish National Fund and Worton Hall Studios made a 1947 movie called The Great Promise (Dim'at Ha'Nehamah Ha'Gedolah), and a number of scenes were filmed in the kibbutz. In total, until 1957, the kibbutz instructed some 16 groups who established kibbutzim all over the country, including HaZore'a, Ein HaShofet, Ramat HaShofet and Megiddo in the vicinity of Mishmar HaEmek.
The residents of Mishmar HaEmek represented the more Arab-friendly and peace-oriented left-wing Mapam party, in opposition to the ruling Mapai center-left establishment. Some of the movement's leaders, such as Mordechai Bentov and Ya'akov Hazan, hailed from the kibbutz.Chazan, Meir. "Mapai and the Arab-Jewish Conflict, 1936-1939", Israel Studies Forum, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Winter 2009), Berghahn Books, pp. 39-40
Great Arab Revolt and World War II At the start of 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, Mishmar HaEmek came under attack from nearby Arab militants under the command of Ahmad Attiyah Awad. Yusuf Abu Durra took over after Awad's death in March 1938. The attacks came in the form of repeated arson attacks on grain fields and forests. They were described by a member as a "crime greater than murder," as the burning of the wheat fields denied the members their main food source. Around 30,000 trees in the kibbutz's vicinity were destroyed and an enormous amount of property was lost. There were no direct attacks on the kibbutz itself, but almost every night there were stray shots fired in its direction. Many of the kibbutz men had to spend time guarding instead of working the fields.
British High Commissioner Arthur Grenfell Wauchope visited the kibbutz and appointed 15 members as armed guards; however, in August 1936, the situation worsened when the attacks became more frequent. The British government sent 60 soldiers to the kibbutz and in October the attacks on the kibbutz ended. Poet and future Israeli politician Uri Zvi Greenberg criticized the members of Mishmar HaEmek for not taking matters into their hands after the attacks on their fields. In a poem he wrote about the events he changed the name of the kibbutz from "Mishmar HaEmek" (Guard of the Valley) to "Hefker HaEmek" (Abandonment of the Valley).
On 2 February 1938 Abraham Goldschleger, a kibbutz member and guide for Ein HaShofet, was ambushed and murdered by residents of Al-Kafrayn. Two residents of Ein HaShofet who accompanied him were also killed in the attack. One of the shooters was caught and executed. In that period the Palmach (an elite force of the Jewish Haganah underground organization) used the trees in the nearby forest as cover for their main training camp and its fighters worked in the kibbutz so not to raise suspicion by the British soldiers.