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What's a Moshav?
Moshavim were established as agricultural communities of individual farms as an integral part of the Secular Zionist vision of the 1940's and 50's. Nahalal, the first Moshav was established in 1921 in the Jezreel Valley, but most moshavim were established in the 1950's and early 1960's as a means of absorbing huge numbers of new immigrants, specifically sefardim into Israeli society. Each familly was given free of charge a parcel (or parcels) of land typically 10-30 dunam (1 dunam = 1000 square meters) and a starter home, with the expectation that they would be able to earn a living by farming or working the land. For this reason, images of moshav life figures large in Israeli culture, as a huge number of Israelis have or had grandparents who lived on moshavim. Moshavim differ significantly from kibutzim in that the land and associated rights carried with it private ownership as well as the right to buy and sell the land. The last moshav was established in 1963 and none have been established since. Moshavim Today As is the case throughout Europe and North America, aggriculture has little economic value except in scales far more massive than what is possible at a moshav. Faced with this reality, moshavim faced steady economic decline through much of the 70's and 80's. In the mid-80's though, the trend began turning around as successfull Israelis began buying up meshekim (individual farm properties) on moshavim and transforming socialist farm communities into modern estate communities. This trend is extremely strong specifically in the moshavim in the Tel Aviv and Sharon regions, where successful secular Israelis tend to live in mass. As a result, moshavim in Israel can be broadly categorized into two types: those which have been rehabed and those which haven't. The ones which have been rehabed are anywhere from pleasant to absolutely stunning, while those that haven't are often extremely run down, have abandoned houses, overgrown lots, heaps of trash, etc. To get a snapshot understanding as to the real estate market for rehabed moshavim a good resource is www.luxury-realestate-israel.com. They are a leading Israeli real estate brokerage and have a good write-up on rehabed moshavim. Despite modern Israel's surging economic success, rehabed moshav life has remained almost exclusively an option for secular native Israelis. There are few if any attractive moshavim offering basic societaly features required by any religious Israelis, much less Americans wanting other american neighbors. The Israeli government takes an essentially socialist attitude toward land development, and generally limits all new housing plots to 0.5 dunam (about 0.22 acres). While it is possible to purchase two 0.5 dunam lots together (totalling one dunam) and build one house on them, for various reasons this is a generally a bad economic decision which very few take. The only way to get a large plot of land within a community is to purchase a property "grandfathered in" from a previous governmental period (ie. Ottoman, British, Early Zionist etc. ). Rehabed moshavim fit this description and are therefore among the most valuable poperties in Israel today. Americans and Moshavim Despite thousands of Americans moving to Israel and purchasing homes here, up until now the option has been some variaiton on a city apartment or a house in a half-dunam community typically catering to the Religious Zionist set. Yishi offers what has been utterly unobtainable up til now: a genuinely large (2 acre) property, an American Dream lifestyle, and American neighbors, all within walking distance to the largest Anglo community in Israel. Interrested? |