The story of the founding of Netanya

The story of the establishment of Netanya begins at the conference of the Bnei Binyamin movement, the movement of the members of the first Aliya, in Zichron Ya’akov in 1926. At that conference, it was decided to establish a settlement, first of all because of Zionism, and also in order to address the housing and land shortage of the second generation in the moshavot.

But there was no money at all. How will land be purchased?

And so, they say, they sat on one of the balconies in Zichron, two of the heads of Bnei Binyamin – Alexander Aharonson, the younger brother of Aharon, Sarah and Rivka, and the secretary of the movement, Oved Ben Ami. Suddenly an idea flashed in their minds – just like here in Zichron Yaakov – we have to find a wealthy Jewish philanthropist who will donate money and turn the dream into reality!

But on second thought – it’s not that simple. All the philanthropists were already taken, or they despaired and then retired. (We’re talking about seventy-five years before Internet and Google). Nevertheless, within a few months, a delegation headed by Oved Ben Ami, whose members included Itamar Ben Avi, the son of the Hebrew reviver and Gad Machnes, the brother of Oded’s and Gadi’s (the two great footballers from the 70-s) grandfather, the second generation of Petah Tikva founders, traveled to the golden continent to look for a rich Jewish donor…

After a few months with no results, so they say, they returned to New York empty-handed, and disappointed they prepared to sail back to Israel, when suddenly one of them noticed an ad in the New York Times: “The chain of stores, Macy’s, congratulates Nathan Strauss, on the occasion of his eightieth birthday!”

Nathan Strauss, the rich Jew, was exactly what they were looking for! Within a few minutes they went to the local post office and sent a telegram to Nathan Strauss: “On the occasion of your birthday, we decided to name after you a city in Israel: Natan-Ya.”

Was it? I don’t know, but the fact is that within seven months there was enough money to buy from the mukhtar of the village of Umm Khaled 1,400 dunams. The settlement was named after Nathan Strauss (the hyphen was dropped after a year) and the rest is history.

Thus, Netanya is a reflection of the State of Israel – without natural resources, contrary to the odds but with a lot of positive chutzpah and a spirit of initiative and daring.

We thank Yossi Kally for contributing to this article http://www.kaltour.co.il