In 1943, a group of courageous pioneers transformed the dry Israeli desert into a flourishing community.

After being thrown out of public school in Florence, Italy, during World War II simply for being Jewish, 18-year-old Yoel De-Malach decided it was time to immigrate to the Land of Israel. The promise of building a Jewish state challenged his sense of adventure. "I was a Zionist, and I wanted to help start something new in Israel," recalls Yoel. "I joined a group of young men in the Youth Aliyah movement, and the 12 of us set out to create a kibbutz in the Negev Desert."

Leaving behind the bustling city of Florence with its lush gardens and flowing River Arno, Yoel found himself in the barren, lonely desert. The vast open spaces and desolate beige landscape were intimidating, but Yoel knew that for the greater good of the future State of Israel, this was where he and his fellow pioneers had to be.

A Settlement in Disguise

The British--who controlled the Land of Israel at the time--forbade Jewish settlements in the south. But Yoel and the other pioneers found a loophole. They settled in Revivim under the guise of creating an agricultural center to conduct scientific experiments. But their true mission was to create a Jewish settlement in the southern desert, in hopes of extending Israel's boundaries when the United Nations was ready to carve out a Jewish state.

They founded Revivim as a mitzpeh--a lookout settlement that patrolled British and Arab activity in the south. At first, Yoel and the other pioneers lived in an ancient cave once inhabited by Byzantine monks. Eventually, they built a small fort-like compound, encasing the entire community within stone walls to protect themselves from Bedouins. They used the roof of one building as a watchtower and installed a two-way radio to communicate with the Jewish military underground, the Palmach. The settlers slyly concealed their activities from the British--telling them that the antenna they used for radio contact was essential in testing climatic conditions, and hiding the radio itself in a first-aid kit.

Making the Desert Bloom

The small Revivim community struggled in its early days. "We thought that many Holocaust survivors would join our community and help strengthen it," says Yoel. But most preferred the cities of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Those who wished to farm settled in the green fields of the north, thinking that the Revivim pioneers were crazy. Who would try to grow fruit and vegetables in the lifeless desert? "Yet, we promised to make the Negev bloom," says Yoel.

The pioneers knew they could succeed only by working together as a community, sharing everything, whether good or bad. "We were a new Zionist community," says Yoel. They wanted to create a community where everyone was an equal, whether man or woman, educated, uneducated, Ashkenazi or Sephardi. After all, Mitzpeh Revivim would become a kibbutz, and that was what a kibbutz was all about.

"The lack of water was the most difficult problem to overcome in the early days," recalls Yoel. The crops' only source of water was a wadi, a seasonal stream. In the summer, the wadi's dry trenches cut through the desert, but in the winter, runoff from the rains far away in the hills and mountains revived the wadi. The pioneers worked day and night to divert the wadi's trickle of water into reservoirs to irrigate the thirsty fields.

Those waters were not enough, however, so the pioneers dug a well and eventually struck water--salt water. Wanting to save the fresh water for the crops, the settlers drank the well water, and soon became accustomed to the salty taste. Whenever one of the members of Mitzpeh Revivim would visit the center of Israel, they added salt to their tea or coffee instead of sugar, because they were so used to their precious salty water.

Many pioneers gave up and left the settlement in the 1950s. But for every one who left, two more came to take their place. Women eventually joined the first male pioneers, working in the fields, together, shoulder to shoulder.

Sure enough, their dedication and hard work paid off. Green islands began to emerge in the desert. The trees grew, the flowers blossomed, and the crops took root. Soon vast fields of date palms, pomegranates, and olives crisscrossed the desert landscape.

Each erev Shabbat, the pioneers would rest from their backbreaking work. "We would light the Shabbat candles in the dining room, and then go outside to enjoy the campfire, where we would gush with joy at our successes and sing songs of Zionist ideals," Yoel recalls. The pioneers believed that together they could overcome any difficulty and achieve any task. Nothing would stop them: not the desert, not the wild beasts, not the hot Middle Eastern sun, and certainly not the upcoming war for Israel's independence.

Zoom In
The kibbutz is a unique type of community found only in Israel. In a kibbutz, the community members share everything and work together toward a common goal, like one large family. In fact, originally most kibbutz children lived in a dormitory rather than in their parents’ homes as they do today. The children grew up together like brothers and sisters. Kibbutzim flourished during Israel’s early days, but their numbers declined in the 1970s and ’80s. Today, about 120,000 people live in kibbutzim—just 2 percent of the population. When the state was founded in 1948, kibbutzim made up about half of the settlements in Israel and were home to 8 percent of the Jewish population.