The Story of a Kibbutz

The entry hall is devoted to the history of Kibbutz Yad Mordechai. The members of the founding settlement group, members of the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement in Poland, arrived in Palestine in 1936. They initially settled at an available location near Netanya known as Mitzpe Hayam. There, they lived for seven years and actively assisted the illegal Jewish immigration enterprise. In 1943, the founders settled permanently in the northern Negev and named their kibbutz after the commander of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB) in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. For a period of five years, they built a thriving settlement, and during the War of Independence they engaged in a difficult and bloody battle that concluded with the defenders’ retreat from the kibbutz and the site’s conquest by the Egyptian army. In November 1948, the members and their children returned to the kibbutz and rebuilt it.

Films and photos from Yad Mordechai’s archives that tell visitors the story of the kibbutz are shown on the interior wall.

The main wall of the spacious hall displays a monumental piece of art, reaching from the floor to the ceiling, by artist by Roda Reinlinger. The work gives expression to the terror of the attack of the Egyptian army as experienced by the members of the kibbutz.

Beneath this work is a model of the kibbutz as it existed in 1948. The model contains a simulation of the attack of the Egyptian forces and the defensive array of the settlement.

The exhibit also includes a display of weapons from the War of Independence.