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Sarona was a German Templer colony northeast of the city of Jaffa. [1]It was one of the earliest modern villages established in Palestine. Today it is a neighborhood in Tel Aviv, Israel.
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History
The Templer settlement of Sarona was one of the first modern agricultural settlements in Palestine and became a model for the Jewish pioneers. In August 1871, the Templers purchased 60 hectares of land from a Greek monastery north of Jaffa. Part of the Plains of Sharon (after which it was named) near the River Audsche (Yarkon River) it was four kilometres from Jaffa. In October 1871, the foundation stones were laid for the first houses.[2] Extreme hardship and disease took a heavy toll in human life the first few years. Malaria caused the deaths of 28 of the 125 settlers of Sarona in 1872 alone. In an effort to dry the marshy land 1,300 eucalyptus trees were planted.
By 1889, 269 persons lived in Sarona. There were 41 homes, a communal hall, a winery, workshops, barns and sheds. The Sarona colonists brought modern farming tools and practices to the Holy Land. They focused on crops and products they could readily sell. This "agriculture-for-profit" was an economic innovation in a land that for centuries had practiced only "self-sustaining farming." Grain crops and dairy industry first, then orchards and vineyards were planted. Faced with a shortage of financial resources for infrastructure development, the community introduced Frondienst, a compulsory work system where every male member was required to do a certain number of hours of community work each month. The building of roads, development of land, roads and drainage and community facilities could thus be scheduled. The researcher and author Sven Hedin wrote of his visit to Sarona in 1916 "...many plants were in blossom. They mainly grow grapes, oranges and vegetables, [but] like in old times they also produce milk and honey."
British occupation
In November 1917, British troops occupied Sarona, turning the community house into a field hospital and commandeering other buildings for military use. [3]In July 1918, the Templers (a total of 850 people) were interned in Egypt at Helouan near Cairo. The Red Cross, Quakers and Unitarians took up their cause, and on July 29, 1920, after 270 internees had been repatriated in April to Bad Mergentheim in Germany, the House of Lords permitted the remaining internees to return to Palestine. The residents of Sarona returned to a plundered and vandalized colony. Following negotiations with the British authorities, compensation was paid, in some cases up to 50%.
By 1925 Sarona was still a small settlement, although grown in area. It was still a farming community but more emphasis was placed on tradesmen. With the increasing Jewish immigration to Palestine (80,000 immigrants arrived in 1920-1926 alone) the settlement prospered due to a ready market for their produce and their services.
Nazi affiliation
During the 1930s, with the rise of the Nazi party to power, many of the Templers embraced Nazi ideology. Nazi party branches where established in every colony and Nazi official, diplomats, gestapo and S.S. officers – including Adolf Eichmann – visited Palestine and were received with great enthusiasm by the men and women of Sarona. About a third of the Templer colonies registered as supporters of the new rule and become Nazi party members. Nazi youth movement activities were popular and the plans to open schools based on Nazi ideologies turned the once-friendly Jewish Yishuv away and Templer produce was boycotted.
At the end of August 1939, a few days before World War II broke out, young Templer men eligible for the draft were conscripted into the Wehrmacht and left for Germany. Those who stayed behind became enemy nationals. [4]Sarona, together with the three other agricultural settlements - Wilhelma, Bethlehem of Galilee and Waldheim - became "perimeter" compounds into which all Germans living in Palestine were interned. Sarona held close to 1,000 persons behind a guarded, 4 m high barbwire fence. In July 1941, 198 people from Sarona, together with almost 400 from the other internment camps were deported to Australia on the Queen Elizabeth. They were interned in Tatura in Central Victoria Australia until 1947. By November 1944, most of the remaining Sarona residents had been moved to the camp in Wilhelma camp. The last group was sent there in September 1945.
Establishment of the Kirya
In 1948, when the British Mandate ended and British troops left Sarona, the old houses and army barracks were used by the Israeli government as offices. The area became known as the "Kirya." With the rapid growth of Tel Aviv, the Kirya became prime real-estate in the heart of the city. When plans for redeveloping the area were proposed in the mid-1970s, preservationists successfully campaigned against demolition. Consulting with historians, it was decided Sarona was of heritage value and 18 structures with distinct architectural styles would be preserved.
Architecture and restoration
Since 2003, the Tel Aviv municipality has been working to preserve and restore Sarona. To make way for a highway, techniques were developed for moving some of the houses to a more convenient location.
Houses marked for preservation:
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- Original Community House (No 25)
- Old Lämmle House (No 19)
- Glenk House (No 61)
- The New Community House (No 9a)
- Friedrich Häring House (No 52)
- New School and Community Complex (No 84)
- Immanuel Steller House (No 55)
In 2008, after the widening of Kaplan Street, which required moving four houses and the old Gemeindehaus, the area to the south was renamed Ganei Sarona (Sarona Gardens).
References
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