Video at the Vilna: Rain 1949

Thu 25 Sep, 7-9 pm. Vilna Shul, 18 Phillips Street, Boston, 02114. Steven Greenberg, Director, 617 523 2324, steven@bcjh.org. Boston Center for Jewish Heritage - [events]

Kibbutz Megiddo was founded in 1949 by a group of Holocaust survivors, whose children and grandchildren still maintain the land. Creation of the kibbutz came, however, at the expense of local Arab villagers, whose land -a village then called Lejun- was confiscated. Locals were displaced from their homes, their farms and their livelihoods.

Yagoda first arrived at Kibbutz Megiddo in 1977 as part of his military service and discovered that his mother had been one of the cooperative’s original group of refugee settlers. His return visit 17 years later offers an interesting and reasonably balanced look at how locals on both sides view the conflict.
Yagoda interviews numerous kibbutz residents, all of whom are passionate about the land that serves as their home. Many are sensitive to the fact that others were displaced for their benefit. Nobody on the kibbutz denies the history of the place, but many seem to have emotionally detached themselves from it, for their own mental well-being as residents with no plans to leave.