Zionism and Free Enterprise The Story of Private Entrepreneurs in Citrus Plantations in Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s

212 Pages·2012·19.83 MB·English

by  Irit Amit-Cohen

Irit Amit-Cohen
Zionism and Free Enterprise
Israel Studies in Historical
Geography
Edited by
Yehoshua Ben-Arieh and Ruth Kark
Irit Amit-Cohen
Zionism and
Free Enterprise
The Story of Private Entrepreneurs in Citrus
Plantations in Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s
DE GRUYTER MAGNES
Published with the assistance of
The James Amzalak Fund for Research in Historical Geography
Translated from Hebrew by Jerry Aviram
First edition published by the Hebrew University Magnes Press in 2006:
(cid:685)(cid:681)(cid:697)(cid:677)(cid:696)(cid:673)(cid:676)(cid:3)(cid:681)(cid:696)(cid:677)(cid:679)(cid:672)(cid:686)(cid:3)(cid:676)(cid:675)(cid:681)(cid:679)(cid:676)
ISBN 978-3-11-028806-3
e-ISBN 978-3-11-028815-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
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& Hebrew University Magnes Press, Jerusalem
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Contents
Introduction
Reconstructing the Past to Shape the Present | 1
Chapter 1
Time and Space – Spatial and Periodical Delimitations | 10
A. Central Coastal Plain of Palestine in the British Mandate Period | 10
B. Private Entrepreneurs in Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s | 15
C. The Book’s Objectives | 18
Chapter 2
The Private Entrepreneur and Economic Development of Palestine in the British
Mandate Period | 21
A. Private Entrepreneur: Definitions and Characteristics | 21
B. Palestine and Private Enterprise in the 1920s and 1930s | 23
C. Development in Palestine from the Standpoint of the Private Investor | 29
Chapter 3
Citrus Plantation Farms on the Central Coastal Plain | 36
A. Immigration to Palestine – Its Effect on Decisions to Establish Small Citrus
Grove Estates | 36
B. The Qalmaniya Estate | 40
C. Canadian Jews and Plantations Farms on the Central Coastal Plain | 50
The Norman Schiffer Farm | 52
Max Adelman and Gan Hasharon Citrus Plantations | 57
Chapter 4
Plantation Companies in the Southern Coastal Plain – Private Initiatives for
Cooperative Settlement | 65
A. Introduction | 65
B. Gan Raveh: Citrus Groves of South African Jews | 71
C. Meir Rosoff’s Citrus Gardens | 83
The Management Committee according to Rosoff | 86
Chomsky: Cooperation between Capital and Labor | 92
Gan Rashal | 100
Ganney Hadar | 102
VI   Contents
Chapter 5
From Alexandria to Palestine – Baron de Menasche and the Bnei Binyamin
Association | 110
Felix de Menasche – Introduction | 110
De Menasche Family | 111
Baron de Menasche: Connections with Weizmann and
Political Activity | 114
Felix de Menasche: Settlement Activity in Palestine in the 1920s | 118
Felix de Menasche and his Investments in Palestine in the 1930s | 124
Chapter 6
Tycoons in Palestine | 130
A. Discovering the Economic Potential of Palestine | 130
B. Chaim Weizmann and His Approach to Large Private Capital | 133
Asher Pierce | 138
Max Shoolman | 144
Alfred Mond | 150
C. The Development: Gan Haim Plantations Company | 151
Expansion: Efforts to Create a Monopoly in the Citrus Grove Belt in the
Coastal Plain | 157
D. The Split: Establishment of the Palestine Plantation Company | 163
Chapter 7
Conclusion: Space, Time and Human Being | 172
Space and Time – The Citrus Plantation, a Unique Phenomenon in Palestine
during the British Mandate Period | 172
Human Being – Biography Designs Landscape | 182
Bibliography | 188
Index | 197
List of Illustrations
Illustration 1: Moshe (Moe) Chetcow’s office address in Tel-Aviv; a member of Gan Hasharon
investors, 1938  60
Illustration 2: Share certificate in the Gan Haim (Chaim) Plantation Company 148
Illustration 3: Certificate of merit awarded to Max Shoolman for his activities on behalf of the
Gan Haim (Chaim) Corporation, 1931 170
List of Maps
Map 1: The central coastal plain 11
Map 2: The private citrus estate and companies in the coastal plain, 1939 30
Map 3: The plantation area developed in the north of Kfar Saba, 1939 39
Map 4: Kubeiba tract of land 1928 66
Map 5: Ganney Hadar Settlements, 1936 66
Map 6: Jewish Owned Land in the Kubeiba Block in 1936 72
Map 7: Pierce and Melchett, joint investment, 1928 158
Map 8: Palestine Plantations Company – Tel Mond, 1931 165
List of Photographs
Photograph 1: Qalmaniya farm, 1931 45
Photograph 2: Gredinger and Ben-Ezer in Qalmaniya farm, 1930  45
Photograph 3, 4: Silicate Brick Factory, Tel-Aviv, 1922  47
Photograph 5: Gan Schiffer and Halperin, 1929 54
Photograph 6: Norman Schiffer’s family and the “large farm” at Hadar, 1930  56
Photograph 7: Beside the packing house at Gan Hasharon, 1938 62
Photograph 8a; 8b: Gate at the entrance to Gan Hasharon, 1930, 3.10.2003 64
Photograph 9: Laying the cornerstone for the Policansky home at Gan Raveh, 1929  80
Photograph 10: Inaugurating the well at Gan Raveh, 1929 81
Photograph 11: Gan Raveh entrance gate, 1929 82
Photograph 12: Gan Hadar A, 1931 103
Photograph 13: Gan Hadar A‘s citrus plantations, 1934 104
Photograph 14: “Yakhin House” at Gan Hadar Plantation 1936 104
Photograph 15: Meir Rosoff’s visit at Ganney Hadar (arrival at Naana train station, 1936)  105
Photographs 16, 17 and 18: Baron Felix de Menasche (1865–1943), his wife Rosette (1875–1949)
and family, Alexandria 1925  112
VIII   List of Photographs
Photograph 19: Max Shoolman and Asher Pierce in Tel Asher, 1927 143
Photograph 20: Planting the first citrus grove at Gan Haim, 1928 149
Introduction
Reconstructing the Past to Shape the Present
Since the last decade of the 20th century, the landscape – natural and cultural –
in Israel and other Western countries has been undergoing many changes, pri-
marily due to population growth and increasing demand for land for building.
These changes are expressed in accelerated development, expansion of built-up
areas and the resultant disappearance of open space, especially adjoining urban
centers. To minimize the damage to the environment and to the quality of life, we
have witnessed in recent years the development, in the world in general and Israel
in particular, of management and planning systems for the natural and cultural
landscape environment, prepared in accordance with environmental, social,
economic and ideological considerations. These considerations are the result of
study of the landscape, aimed at understanding it better and revealing its char-
acteristics. Without such understanding of the landscape and without analyzing
its components, it is impossible to commence planning and conservation as well
as control development; such understanding must be founded on familiarity with
and study of the landscape of today and the landscapes of the past.
One approach to investigating various aspects of the landscape is the study of
remnants of the material culture and life patterns, a subject well grounded in geo-
graphical-historical research. Researcher Yehoshua Ben-Arieh defined this field
as “the study of the remnants of the past which can still be seen in the present
landscape.” In his paper detailing the areas of geographical-historical research,
he stressed that at times it appears that there can be no more exciting field of
research than the attempt to unravel an ancient period, which has disappeared
beneath the shapes of the present landscape, particularly when it leaves behind
it enigmatic manifestations that are most difficult to explain.1 Michael Pacione,
in his 1987 volume, added that study of prominent historical remnants in today’s
landscape deals with the relationship between chronology (time) and chorogra-
phy (space); compared with the three dimensions that compose space, the fourth
dimension – time – is of the highest importance. Researchers working in this field
argue that we can understand, plan, develop and advance the present only by
first evaluating, decoding and revealing the contribution of the past to our pres-
ent landscape.2
Study of historical remnants in the landscape has gained momentum in re-
cent years. The research is no longer limited to the description and documenta-
1 Ben-Arieh 1970.
2 Pacione 1987, p. ix.
2   Introduction
tion of monuments, glorious cultural assets or cavernous buildings related to re-
gimes and social nobility, but rather examines the characteristics of the vernacu-
lar sites reflecting ordinary material culture: industrial and household devices
designed by and belonging to individuals, families or communities. It expands
their description, spatial location, effect on the present landscape, as well as their
social environment and the manner in which they were utilized for political and
economic purposes.3
The broad discussion of everyday cultural assets and their description and
effect on environment and society refers to an asset as if it is a written text, a very
rare text or an archive that offers inimitable information.4 This approach asks the
observer to look at and “read” the asset on two levels: the overt (apparent), that
which the eye can see, and the covert (concealed), which is revealed through re-
search and understanding.
The overt level is analyzed by appearance and the extent of the observed pre-
dominance of the relic in space. The observer absorbs the landscape as it is in all
its parts, components and the relations between them, without delving into their
nature, their creation and how they were affected by their location and the pas-
sage of time.
On the covert level, it is the image that is examined – the personal perception
of the landscape. This perception derives from memory – the personal-intimate
memory and the social-collective memory. It is affected by capabilities of interpreta-
tion, belief, mental structure and mood, contemporary events, its perceptions
and imagery,5 and therefore the image is dynamic and changing in accordance
with time and environment. This approach was expressed in 1979 in The Inter-
pretation of Ordinary Landscapes, a book edited by Donald Meinig.6 The book
is an anthology of nine articles, written by a group of U.S. researchers, mostly
cultural geographers. The researchers “read” the cultural landscape and cultural
heritage sites twice: the first time they documented the landscape and the assets,
described their form, distribution and composition; the second time they read
“between the lines” and interpreted the landscape and the assets. One central
subject dealt with by the interpretation was the representational function of or-
dinary landscapes and assets and their symbolic significance. Here is how Don-
ald W. Meinig presented this subject in his article, “The Beholding Eye: Ten Ver-
sions of the Same Scene”: “Take a small but varied company to any convenient
3  Meinig 1979; Jackson 1994.
4  Rowntree & Conkey 1980, p. 459; Duncan & Duncan 1988; Ewald 2001.
5  Berger 1972, p. 8.
6  Meinig 1979.