100 NOT OUT! – The
flame flickered but never went out
For members of the
The Matzuva Alon (Matzuva Newsletter)
has reached such a milestone in its new format called “Aley
Giva” with the publishing of the latest edition number
100. Matzuva is a small community
but can be justly proud of issuing news, information and views to and from
members for many decades.
The current editor, Edna Nathans,
touches on it’s history which relates how it developed
over the years.
“In the archives I found a small number
of editions that were produced to mark various events – the Jewish New Year,
Matzuva Anniversary celebrations, etc.
The editions appeared between ‘1944-1953’ under
the name “Matzuva” and later “Matzuva – Alon Hakvutza”. In 1953 they began to appear every week as
information pages and were numbered. The
50th edition appeared in a bumper form and with the name
”Pi Matzuva”. In that issue veteran member, Shimshon Cochavi, explained that he found that the original name for
the ancient settlement was in fact “Pi Matzuva” during the time of the
We salute former editors of the Matzuva
Alon: Shlomo Doron, Zvi Am-ad, Esther Yiftach-El,
Dina Rosen, Orli Carmi (Mitzpe
Hila), Aviva Gefen (Tel
Aviv), Avia Zimran, Karni Am-ad, Clarita Lisak and Ziva Sagi.
Shomo Doron: (We wanted to leave our mark!)
"I arrived at Matzuva in 1942 as a
member of a Czech ground and found here a very closed community
(German refugee founders). It was
difficult and we wanted to leave our mark.
At that time there were no minutes of meetings and information was
sparse although there were many opinions.
When I became the kibbutz secretary I
decided to publish a weekly information sheet mainly composed of policies and
committee minutes. Somebody else took
over this task and at a later stage I continued to edit the Alon with Esther Yiftach-El. The
purpose was to bring over information, exchange of opinions and future
activities all with the aim of bringing the kibbutz members closer together”
Zvi Am-ad: “
“When I began to edit the Alon I wanted
to give it a name. Shimshon
Cochavi suggested the name “Pi Matzuva” according to
the tract from the Mishnah –
“These are the forbidden cities
within the area of
Pi Matzuva and
“As editor I decided to omit the name
Hanita from the sentence because of the continuing dispute we had with Hanita
at that time – mainly about water and the telephone. The telephone was a joint line for both
kibbutzim and when it rang it was picked up at both places. Our water supply came from a ½ inch pipe from
Hanita – sometimes there was water sometimes not. There was water rationing at Matzuva and the
ration was half a kettle of water per person a day – for drinking, for
showering and cleaning! (with the water shortage today
maybe it can happen again! – Edna).
The first Alon I edited began with
“Dear Reader…” a full page of my editorial.
Izki Samoushi (Zal) supplied the graphics for the Alon. Most of the rest of the Alon I also wrote -
members didn’t bother to write. During
my time as editor the Alon was very critical that wasn’t to my liking and I
often wrote satire. I always tried not
to offend and disseminate information about the branches, the committees and
happenings.
The production of the Alon was
performed under difficult conditions – everything was written and drawn on
stencils and rolled off by hand.
I loved the work of editing and later I
became editor for 5-years of “Igeret” the weekly
magazine of the Kibbutz Movement.
Today the Alon appears on the Internet
(congratulations to Max Nathans who thought up the idea, to Baruch Kadmon who
makes it happen and to Sharon Doron in
Esther Yiftach-El:
“I worked together with Shlomo Doron
1972-3. The Alon then appeared every
Friday, Pami Ben-Porat
Carter (Zal) served as our secretary and,] Shlomo and
I alternately shared the leader article as well as a featuring a pretty regular
weekly interview when various committee leaders were interviewed or to mark somebody’s
special occasion. Minutes and reports of
the various committees and general meetings appeared. One interesting entry was an “interview with Tiltil the dog” to mark the setting up of a canine committee
to deal with problems relating to dogs on the kibbutz. The late Izki Samoushi published a portrait of the “Matzuva Dogs” and the
names of their owners. A special edition
of the Alon appeared during this time – a festive Pi Matzuva no. 1000 printed
on superior paper. The “It Concerns Me”
corner began to appear with members airing their views and suggestions
regarding community matters that needed to be improved or tackled”.
Esther ends her recollections with
greetings to the present editor, Edna, who continues to produce the Alon every
fortnight.
Dina Rosen:
“As the editor of the Alon I followed
events only occurring on the kibbutz.
The Alon was an important part of our lives enabling everybody to know
what’s happening in the community. The
Alon was eagerly awaited by members at the end of each week”.
Avia Zimran:
Avia edited the Alon 20 years ago and recollects that it was printed at
the Shlomi Printers and the traditional logo of the late Avri
Segali’s “Carob Tree” was replaced with a modern
cubist tree. "I instituted a new
feature of a coloured caricature depicting the
content of the week’s Alon or the main event or issue at the kibbutz. These were the days of the ‘Tipul Shoresh (Root Canal)' – discussion workshops on the
state and future of the kibbutz, on the
subject of differential wages, less central control, less regulations,
etc. Each week the organizers would
publish reports on the workshops that engulfed the whole community. Like most newspapers the last page was
devoted to gossip and goings on at the kibbutz.
Members on reserve duty in the IDF would report on their experiences in
the army. Information regarding new
books in the library and Shmulik Eshed's
bicycle club and Avner Galilee would contribute
topical caricatures. An interesting addition in time for the Matzuva
Anniversary celebrations was the appearance of a “Matzuva Jargon”
dictionary. I was succeeded as editor
by the young descendant of the Am-Ad dynasty, Karni.
Karni Am-ad:
Karni relates that a newspaper is topical mainly on the day it is
published and quickly loses its relevance afterwards.
“I don’t have too many nostalgic
memories of editing the Alon. I wanted
it to be provocative and awakening and from the little duplication room in the
secretariat, together with Yaeli Fibach,
I wanted to create an Alon that was more effervescent and of course it actually
got some members backs-up (some even ceased to be my friends). The then farm manager, Shalom Shmueli, asked me to reduce costs of the Alon and to stop
printing the Alon in Shlomi. I was
furious and my response was to publish the Alon in a smaller format with the
front page being a large pair of scissors symbolizing the demanded reduction of
costs. I used the smallest fonts
possible and this brought on complaints from older members that they were
unable to read the text and Shimshon at the archives
complained that it was too small to bind.
Another incident was a call to everyone to go out and put nylon bags on
the bananas in the plantations. The next
edition featured a yellow bunch of bananas on the front page and a piece of
blue cellophane attached to it with a paperclip!”
Although he went on to work as a journalist
(now at the national kibbutz movement weekly) Karni
relates that he remembers with affection all the time he spent preparing the
Alon in the small duplicating room.
Clari Lisak:
“I was editor of the Alon for 3 years
until it ceased to appear at the time of the privatization process in
2001. At the beginning it appeared
weekly but as the financial situation worsened it appeared less and less until
it was finally closed. Times were bad
and members were worried and mixed-up regarding the ramifications of
privatization and many didn’t know how to handle the changes. During the final year, the Alon was nearly
exclusively devoted to complaints by members and their frustrations. I was at the centre of the storm and it was
very difficult for me to see the deterioration and difficult atmosphere.
After the closure
only information sheets by the kibbutz committee appeared. Members wrote on issues of the cuts and
circulated leaflets in members postboxes. I liked editing the Alon and after its
closure I found myself at home without work (besides the Alon I worked in the
secretariat and for 7 years I was in charge of special education). It’s a time I prefer to forget”.
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So here's looking
forward to edition 101 and wishing everyone a Happy New Year – a year of peace
and good health to all our readers.
Take Care
Best regards
Baruch – Matzuva
01.01.2009