Remembering Israel’s fallen soldiers and terror victims: Two Memorials and an Avenue

Israelinurse
CiF Watch
08 May '11

On the road going east from Rehovot, just past Kibbutz Hulda and the adjacent Barkan Wineries, lies the first forest planted by the Jewish National Fund – Hulda Forest. It was planted on 500 acres bought from a local Arab tribe in 1905 which were intended to be divided up into small farms, but overgrazing had rendered the land so barren that nobody wanted the plots.

In 1908 the newly established Jewish National Fund decided to plant a forest there in honour of Theodor Herzl who had died four years previously. After a failed initial attempt led by a stubborn German agronomist who tried to apply European knowledge to the unsuitable environment, a pine forest was finally planted there in 1912.

Hulda Forest also hosted a training school for newly arrived Jews wishing to learn agricultural skills and its pupils went on to found collective farms such as Ein Harod, Kfar Yehezkel and Ginegar. One of Hulda’s alumni was Binyamin Munter who was killed at Tel Hai on March 1st 1920, together with Sara Chisik, Joseph Trumpeldor and five others. Munter was found trying to shield Sara with his body from the lethal grenade attack which killed them both.

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