Degania, the first kibbutz

In October 1910 a group of ten men and two women of the Second Aliyah, young pioneers from the Russian Empire who had worked together as a commune in Hadera, settled at Umm Juni on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee, on land bought by the Jewish National Fund. They farmed it together as a kvutza: shared property, shared work and decisions made by all, with no hired labour. Among the founders were Joseph and Miriam Baratz. In 1912 they moved to a permanent site nearby by the Jordan River and called it Degania, after the grain (dagan) they grew.

Degania was the first kibbutz, the model for hundreds of kibbutzim that settled the land, defended its borders and gave the State of Israel many of its leaders. A. D. Gordon lived and worked there, and Moshe Dayan was born there in 1915. On 20 May 1948 its defenders stopped a Syrian armoured attack at its gate, where a Syrian tank still stands.