Samuel Hirsch was the director of the first agricultural school, Mikveh Israel, near Jaffa. Also, there worked Biluim, members of the youth pioneer organization established by Israel Belkind in Kharkov. They believed that an ideal revival of the country of Israel should come through agricultural communes. Samuel Hirsch did not accept Biluim ideas. He put over Biluim a chief, Abdul Aziz from the neighboring village of Yazur (modern Azur) and imposed them a miserable salary for many hours of work. All members of this organization moved to Rishon LeZion. In January 1883, they met another comrade, Menashe Meerovich, a native of Nikolaev. Meerovich was an agronomist and his knowledge and experience were relevant in Rishon LeZion. The idea of breeding silkworm caterpillars and trying to weave silk belongs to him. He developed a manual on "creation of settlements for the middle class for 1200 rubles." Meerovich stood at the cradle of grape cultivation and wine production. He laid the first gardens and orchards on the ground of the current city park. He died here at his home at the age of 89 in 1949, having seen the Jewish state created in 1948. He was called "the last of Biluim."
This is a special tour and a unique route. Its difference from the usual city tour is that your mobile phone is the guide. As in every excursion, it takes time to get used to the tour guide, his style, rhythm and pathways. The only difference is that in this case, you are the storyteller, you are walking yourself and set the pace for yourself - all according to your style. Just give yourself time to get used to it and you will come to life with a story full of the vicissitudes of the lives of real people, a story about their joys and sorrows, a story in which urban legends rise from the past, instill hope and simply sums up: here it all began.
Don't be afraid to get lost in new places!
