This amateur, color home movie footage depicts a visit to Israel by Jewish Americans in the early 1950s, offering a look at collective farming and colonization efforts of the kibbutz movement by socialist Zionist working families or kibbutzniks, as well as a Mizrachi Women’s Organization of America (AMIT) vocational school for children (TRT: 12:52).

A monumental stone pillar sits at the base of a rocky hillside. A traveler looks up at the tower from below (0:08). A woman wearing glasses and a grey dress and carrying a camera approaches a corral of large cattle, turning back to face the camera. Cows graze outside a rural kibbutz structure, seen from multiple angles. Two men walk a paved path around a monument with an inscription (0:18). A rooftop view of the surrounding community, featuring buildings of brick, terracotta rooftops, agricultural developments (0:56). An elderly Jewish man wearing a tallit exits a brick structure that appears to be under construction. Another man passes, wearing a borsalino hat (1:15). Boys and young men, sit in conversation, shaded by palm trees. Closeups of a decorative arched entranceway (1:24). The woman in glasses walks toward the camera with an adolescent girl, who stares into the camera, smiling (1:56). Farm workers wear soft hats while working in a field irrigated by sprinkler pipelines. Young people rake and water the soil (2:09). A cement water tower stands nearby (2:45). A parcel of land is prepared for construction. A walkway is lined and paved (2:52). Kibbutz architecture and communal outdoor common areas (3:33). Men with grazing camels (3:48). People gather near a guarded gate with a sign, “Haddasah,” possibly referring to the Women’s Zionist Organization of America (4:09). Men dig in a sandy desert (4:20). Cut to an urban street scene with late 1940s automobiles. A man smokes a cigarette in the foreground. Cyclists, buses, a Volkswagen, and an apartment building in the background. A photographer in a public square (4:38). A pond with black swans, herons or egrets. A caged dog paces behind a chain link fence (4:58). A coastal shoreline (5:14). A bus station, pedestrians, passing vehicles (5:28). A dirt road. A donkey pulls a cart. A jeep drives by. A tourist appears to ask a local for directions. A man in military uniform (6:05). A brick building takes shape. A residential home, freshly built. A small boy walks a dirt road. A beast of burden pulls a tank of kerosene. Young kibbutzniks of a children’s society wear floral wreaths atop their heads (7:15). A ring-around-the-rosie type game is played. A woman with a tambourine leads the group (8:29). A male farmer indicates growing crops (8:50). Another larger communal building is seen under construction. Young boys lend a hand raking and hoeing the soil. A man and woman look on with pride (9:10). Youths till the soil, plant stakes. A wooden building. Donkeys are ridden in the streets. A horse-drawn cart with a Star of David passes (9:54). A road stretches into the horizon. A sign reads: “Mizrachi Women’s Organization of America, Children’s Village Farm and Vocational School” (also known as AMIT, the organization was at the forefront of youth resettlement in Palestine, and was instrumental in the relocation of Holocaust survivors in 1948-49) (10:57). Young men and women work pulling weeds by hand. A large building, freshly built. A contrast of sand and irrigated farmland (11:19). A red tractor. A woman with red hair. Workers in a field. Children drive a cart (11:52). A woman in a patterned dress walks a dirt road (12:21).

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com