@the source homepage Issue #38
Bar and Bat Mitzvah in Israel: The Ultimate Family Sourcebook,
by Deborah Rosenbloom and Judith Isaacson
Updated contact information will be sent
upon request by e-mail.

Double-Pronged Mitzvah

7: Gifts and More Gifts

6: Ben's Teffilin Tiyul

5: Bar Mitzvah Gibush

Bar Mitzvah in the Wake of Terrorism

4: The Magic Age of 13

3: Ben's Bar Mitzvah

2: Ben's Bar Mitzvah

Lila's Bat Mitzvah. 1

New Online Diary: Ben's Bar Mitzvah

Online Diary of a Bat Mitzvah Planning Parent

Post Bat Mitzvah Reflections

 
NILI
One Thousand Kisses
Beit Aharonson and the NILI Underground

Immortalized by popular Israeli singer, Yehoram Gaon, Elef Nishikot Lach Ahuvati - One Thousand Kisses for You My Beloved - is the poem which Avshalom Fineberg wrote to Sara Aharonson in the early 1900s.



Dining room in Aharonson House


Their tragic romance is intertwined with the struggle of the Jews in pre-State Israel. NILI, the underground organization that the Aharonsons and Fineberg created to oust the rule of the Ottoman Empire and replace it  with the protection of the British Empire, is an acronym for the words ``Netzah Yisrael Lo Yishakar - the Might of Israel Will Not Fail''.



In the small agricultural community of Zikhron Yaakov, an hour south of Haifa, amongst the vineyards financed by the Baron de Rothschild, NILI activists led a spy ring which passed intelligence about the movements of the Turks to the British army via carrier pigeon. One fateful day the carrier pigeon was caught and the ring was unmasked. Sara Aharonson was captured in her home but to the anger of the Turks, she managed to take her own life before they could hang her. 


Photos of the Aharonson Family on the salon walls


Sara's lover, Abshalom died a tragic death in the Sinai desert while on his way to Egypt on a sectret mission. His body was only discovered after 1967. His grave was marked in the desert by a date tree which grew from the dates he had with him on his journey before Beduion in the area killed him. To the day it was discovered, the local Beduoin called it the Jew Date Tree. 


Hiding place or slik where Sara's gun was hidden.


A scientist, Aharon Aharonson is credited with discovering Mother Wheat, the wheat from which cultivated wheat is grown all over the world today. He established the Jewish Agricultural Experiment Station where enormous strides were made in farming without the use of fertilizer.



Aharon Aharonson traveled extensively as seen in the souvenirs in his home.




By Deborah Rosenbloom and Judith Isaacson
Photos
by J. Isaacson
info
The Aharonson House
40 HaMeyasdim St.
Zikhron Yaakov
Tel: 04-6390120

Hours:
Sunday - Thursday: 8:30 - 15:00
Tuesday: 8:30-16:00
Friday: 8:30-13:00
Admission fee.
An excellent film brings this story of the Hebrew underground to life.