How a group of seventh grade pupils documented history at Kibbutz Sde Boker

When students are asked to carry out a research project at school, they often know what to expect – read a Wikipedia article, visit a relevant website, and type up a PowerPoint presentation complete with accompanying photos and list of sources. But the pupils at Zin Elementary School in Midreshet Ben-Gurion were completely surprised by the directions given for the David Ben-Gurion research project they recently took part in.

The seventh graders were asked to carry out interviews with colleagues and kibbutz members of Sde Boker who knew David and Paula Ben-Gurion personally and record their responses for a radio program, that would then be edited by the pupils themselves. The final radio edit was actually picked up by BGU Radio, an on-demand Internet podcast network, founded and operated by Ben-Gurion University students at the Sde Boker campus.

“It felt like it was a historical moment to take part in this project. We are maybe the last generation of middle school pupils who will get to hear these stories told directly by the people who experienced them,” Maya Shoshani, 12, said.On a recent Friday, Shoshani and her fellow classmates, together with their homeroom teachers, Shva Biton, Tal Mazgauker, and Tali Brunner, rode on their bicycles from Zin to Kibbutz Sde Boker, located about five kilometers away.“It was different from the typical school project because we got to hear things that we don’t hear every day from the people who lived history,” she added.

Shoshani and her group interviewed four veteran members of Kibbutz Sde Boker: Naava Bekrech, 84; Shmulik Melamed, 85; Elisha Zurgil, 79; and Ora Dat, 82.

Dat worked as the kibbutz nurse and often treated Paula Ben-Gurion, as well as David. She shared with the seventh grade pupils many memories of kibbutz life alongside the Ben-Gurions.

“I visited the home of David and Paula quite frequently as a nurse,” said Dat, who would also drop by to chat with Paula, who was quite lonely on the kibbutz. “Any time there was a health concern or issue, I was called to check up on them. I can remember taking their blood pressure,” she said.

“Ben-Gurion was an honored guest at the weddings and brit milah ceremonies held in the kibbutz,” Dat told the pupils, showing them a photo of her own kibbutz wedding, with David Ben-Gurion in attendance. “He would insist on holding each baby during the brit ceremony, but at some point he became too frail to do this and I asked that he remain seated during the ceremonies,” she recalled.

“When I went to invite Ben-Gurion to our wedding in 1968, it was two months after Paula had died,” Dat recounted. “He was very sad. I didn’t know if he would even come to our wedding. But he attended and told us to have many children,” Dat said with a smile.

“It may have been the last wedding he attended on the kibbutz. We went on to have four kids, and today I have a grandson deployed in Gaza,” she added.

Arriving at the kibbutz

UPON RETIRING as prime minister, David Ben-Gurion and his wife moved from the heart of Tel Aviv to Kibbutz Sde Boker in 1953 and became full-fledged kibbutz members. At the time, David was 67 and Paula, 61. (In 1955, Ben-Gurion would become defense minister, and later, again prime minister. He would officially retire from political life and go on to live in Sde Boker permanently in 1970.) The kibbutz had been established more than one year earlier, in May 1952, and members did not even have running water or electricity.

According to kibbutz member Bekrech, who worked for many years as kibbutz secretary, when the Ben-Gurions first arrived in Sde Boker conditions were very different from today.

The kibbutzniks would have to travel to Yeroham by tractor to fill an empty tank with water, which they would transport back to the kibbutz. The water would last the kibbutz two to three days, and then the tank had to be refilled again in Yeroham.

“The first water pipe arrived in 1955. The Ben-Gurions had arrived at the kibbutz when there was literally nothing but a few tents and huts in the middle of the desert,” Bekrech said. “The Ben-Gurions were the oldest couple on the kibbutz; the rest of us were young, just getting married and starting our families. David wanted to work just like everyone else did at the time,” Bekrech said. “He wanted to be one of us.”

One of the initial goals of the founders was to establish a ranch filled with cows, sheep, goats, and horses. Only later on would the founders become part of the kibbutz movement. According to Bekrech, Ben-Gurion would go out with one of the members of the kibbutz to till the land in the nearby wadi, to make it viable for growing grass needed for the intended herd.

“At some point, Ben-Gurion was transferred to another job because the physical labor of tilling land was too much for him,” Bekrech explained. “It wasn’t work that was suitable for a senior citizen. Ben-Gurion went on to take care of the young kid goats, then on to the kibbutz’s meteorological station, until he finally settled into writing his memoirs and recording the Jewish state’s early history.”

The seventh graders were particularly interested in the going-ons of the kibbutz cafeteria.“Did Ben-Gurion eat with you?” asked one pupil.

“He would eat lunch with us every day in the kibbutz cafeteria,” replied Bekrech.

“Even when heads of state from abroad and Israeli ministers would visit, Ben-Gurion would insist on having lunch with his important guests in the kibbutz dining hall,” noted Bekrech. “I remember when [US president Dwight D.] Eisenhower came to visit.”

During such VIP visits, Paula would bring fancy dinnerware from their home and a nice tablecloth for the cafeteria table on which heads of state would dine. Bekrech was quick to note that the important officials would eat the same food as the rest of the kibbutzniks, just not from the regular plastic dishes of the kibbutz dining hall.“When the Ben-Gurions had special visitors, Paula would ask the cooks in the kitchen to make pea soup because she thought it was delicious,” she added.

According to Bekrech and Dat, Paula was more involved in day-to-day life with the kibbutzniks than David Ben-Gurion. “Paula was bored here in the kibbutz. She chatted with us and would invite us into their home. She had a lot of humor and said exactly what she thought,” said Bekrech, whose husband, Rafi, was one of the founders of Sde Boker.For pupil Daphne Herrero Hanegbi, who lives in Kibbutz Sde Boker, the interview project was eye-opening. “One story that I really liked was that when Ben-Gurion was out walking, he once asked a kid who was playing outside what he wanted to be when he grew up. The kid responded that he wanted to be prime minister, just like Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion told him he could be anything he wanted – just not prime minister.”

“I still can’t understand why Ben-Gurion would say that,” she said.

“I feel like I know much more about Israel’s first prime minister than I ever did before,” she concluded.

IN ADDITION to the radio program created by the seventh grade, all the other grades at Zin, from first to eighth, focused on different elements of Israel’s first prime minister in art, healthy living, culture, political policy, and life as a kibbutz member, among other subjects. Led by the school principal, Orit Freiberg, and her dedicated staff, the pupils’ research and works were

on display in their student-made “museum” in time for David Ben-Gurion Day, which fell on December 8 this year.Dat and Bekrech went to see the pupils’ museum at Zin and were amazed with the time and research put in.“It’s heartwarming to see how much thought and effort the pupils put into learning about David Ben-Gurion. We were so pleased that we could contribute in some small way to this amazing project,” Dat told the Magazine. “I’m glad that the pupils found Ben-Gurion so interesting.” 