|
|
Jan. 25, 2008
Immigrating to Yokne'am
The gateway to the Galilee is experiencing renewed vitality.
EVA COHEN
The term "transit camp" has a negative connotation but, in reality, some transit camps in Israel have emerged as success stories. One in particular, Yokne'am in the Galilee, is looked at as a model for how absorption in the 1950s and 1960s should have occurred.
At the time of the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948, there was a large influx of Jewish Holocaust survivors arriving in Israel. The population of 100 families in Yokne'am, an agricultural moshavah (township) founded in 1935, decided they wanted to be a part of the absorption process and volunteered themselves to the Jewish Agency, asking for about 30 families. Instead, they were sent 180 families – and it didn't stop there. Soon after, even more families were sent to Yokne'am and a tent city of 350 families arose on the property.
In addition to the European immigration, Israel saw a wave from Arab countries as well. Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews from Morocco, Iran, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries were settled in the tents alongside the Ashkenazi. The forced integration was a shock for both sides, said Bernice Malka, manager of the youth department of Yokne'am's municipality. "When you are living in tents like those, you are very close and you are sharing everything," said Malka.
"Of course, it wasn't easy and there was stereotyping but, overall, Yokne'am is seen as a place of successful integration," she added. "Probably because it is so small, it was easier for everyone to start feeling like a community."
The transit tents were around for a long time and were only evacuated at the end of the 1950s. Some families were in the tents until 1961.
Leak Yosefovitz, a teacher at Oranim elementary school, spoke to a group of students from the University of Haifa on a study tour of the city. When introduced, Malka said of Yosefovitz: "Leah's family did not arrive in Yokne'am until 1963 so, fortunately, she did not have to live in the transit camp."
"Not so lucky!" interjected Yosefovitz. The transit camp stage of Yokne'am is looked at almost endearingly in the collective memory of the city.
Once the camp was evacuated, the new immigrants were moved into transitional housing and then into permanent housing in the city, four family units to a building. At first, the city attempted to disperse all cultural groups throughout the newly built neighborhoods, but eventually each group ended up living together, mostly because they had immigrated together and wanted to live near each other.
The industry in Yokne'am was centred around the Sultam weapons factory. The factory built arms, mostly for the shah in Iran, but also built pots and pans as a cover. To this day, people know that the best pots and pans in Israel come from Yokne'am. The city felt very secure with the plant, it paid well and residents figured that people would always need arms. However, when the shah fell, all of a sudden, the company needed to fire people.
"There was almost a panicked push to make the youth of Yokne'am realize they couldn't depend on Sultam anymore and that they needed a higher education," said Malka. People who thought they could leave school at the end of Grade 8 (the mandatory education level) and find work on the factory's assembly lines discovered they would be disappointed."
The push worked in a big way. Education became paramount to the community. Today, there are five elementary schools in the city; four are secular, with a total of 1,890 students, and one is a religious elementary school, with 170. There is also a high school with 1,200 students. The "selling point" is that day-care fees in Yokne'am are only NIS 700 a year for a full day, compared with twice that price, per month, for half a day anywhere else. So, parents are having more kids and families from outside of Yokne'am are choosing to send their children there, even if it's further from home, said Malka.
Aside from the new focus on education, the mayor, Simon Alfasi, realized the city needed to diversify in order to support itself. As a Laborite, Alfasi, who was on close terms with people such as Yitzchak Rabin, made a deal with the government that Yokne'am would receive a special status called "National Priority Area A," which, under the Israeli Law for the Encouragement of Capital Investment, enables "approved enterprises" to tax benefits and investment grants. Companies that choose to locate in the region can apply for concessions in local taxes over a three-year period from the local authority.
With all of these benefits, Yokne'am has grown from a population of 10,000 in 1995 to 21,000 today. It now has a reputation as a high-tech city and attracts world-class technology companies.
One of those companies is Given Imaging, which develops and produces patent-friendly products for detecting gastro-intestinal disorders. Given Imaging pioneered the PillCam capsule used in endoscopy and offers a range of Pillcam video options for the body.
Today, the moshavah, the agricultural basis for the city, still operates but, since 1967, has been its own entity. The city portion, where the immigrants were housed, is now called Yokne'am Illit. It's a prime location in the Galilee, bordered by Highway 70 and the Carmel Mountains, overlooking the fertile Yizrael Valley and only 21 kilometres from Haifa and 80 kilometres from Tel-Aviv. It operates as a northern centre and, due to its diversity, is a destination for families of all backgrounds. In the newer neighborhoods, Sephardi and Ashkenazi pray together in the same synagogues. There are several youth programs aimed at keeping the city tolerant, especially with newer groups, such as the Ethiopians, as they make the country their new home just as many others did a generation or two earlier.
Eva Cohen is a freelance writer based out of Haifa.
^TOP
|
|
