Bar'am

The site of Bar'am has been inhabited by the Jews and their ancient ancestors the Israelites, since ancient times. The ancient Jewish village of Bar'am existed from the 3rd century BCE at its earliest with Jews maintaining a continuous presence in the village until sometime after the 13th century CE.{{cite news |last1=Yudin |first1=Joe |title=Off The Beaten Track: Baram's ancient synagogue |url=https://www.jpost.com/travel/around-israel/off-the-beaten-track-barams-ancient-synagogue |access-date=12 October 2021 |agency=The Jerusalem Post |publisher=Jerusalem Post}} The village and its Jewish population is referenced in several historic accounts, In 1210 CE, Rabbi Shmuel bar Shimshon wrote of two beautiful synagogues that were in use in the Village of Baram in Galilee. These synagogues still stand today, and on the window over the right hand entrance of the larger synagogue, there is an engraving in Aramaic which reads "Built by Elazar son of Yuden (or Yudan)". Later in 1210, Rabbi Yehiel of Paris recorded his visit to the village in his writings. However by 1522, the Italian Rabbi Moshe Basula writes of the Bar'am's apparent abandonment, as did Rabbi Moshe of Jerusalem in 1769. The Maronite Christians from Lebanon built their village atop the Jewish ruins on the site sometime in the 19th century. Their church stands on top of the hill opposite the large synagogue. the Jewish population left Kfar Bar'am, which became a mainly Christian village called Kafr Bir'im on the Lebanese border, which was bulldozed by Israel in 1949. The Christian Arab inhabitants of the town were evicted from their homes due to the Israel Defense Forces insistence that the border area with Lebanon be empty of Palestinians.Morris, 2004, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C&pg=PR22 xxii], settlement #160Khalidi, 1992, p. 461 Benny Morris (1997) Israel's border wars, 1949-1956: Arab infiltration, Israeli retaliation, and the countdown to the Suez War, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, p124

Modern Bar'am is a secular kibbutz established by members of the socialist Hashomer Hatzair movement on 14 June 1949 to guard and hold the border with Lebanon by demobilized Palmach soldiers. In the initial olive harvests, the kibbutz employed Palestinians who were displaced from Kafr Bir'im.{{Cite book |last=Weaver |first=Alain Epp |title=Mapping exile and return: Palestinian dispossession and a political theology for a shared future |date=2014 |publisher=Fortress Press |isbn=978-1-4514-7012-3 |location=Minneapolis, Minn}}

In 1995, the Israeli government established the Liba'i Commission, in part, to resolve claims of the displaced Kafr Bir'im residents. The Committee for the Uprooted of Kafr Bir'im presented a proposal for coexistence of a reconstructed village and the kibbutzim. While some Bar'am residents fully rejected the proposal, architect Deeb Maron and artist Hanna Farah-Kufer Bir'im expanded on the vision in their work.

Baram was the last kibbutz to dispense with the communal child rearing system that was once typical of kibbutzes in 1997, is looked upon by many as a sort of "nature reserve." A few kibbutzim have remained faithful to the original utopian ideology of everybody on the kibbutz being equal regardless of how long their tenure, and still provide three square meals a day in a communal dining room and hold general meetings to discuss and vote on important issues relating to Baram. Life in Bar'am centers around agriculture as well as tourism related to the nearby ancient synagogues and ruins, and the kibbutz has one of the largest volunteer programs.

Bar'am is one of the most popular kibbutzes for volunteers. Every Tuesday and Friday the kibbutzniks and volunteers can party at the local town pub.{{cite web |last1=Trainor |first1=Simon |title=A timeless kibbutz experience: Kibbutz Baram - An Apple of a Time |url=https://www.cfca.co.il/A-timeless-kibbutz-experience-Kibbutz-Baram-An-Apple-of-a-Time |website=WZO |access-date=12 October 2021}} Volunteers hail from South Africa, Denmark, Sweden, the US, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Britain, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Mexico and Burma.[http://www.jpost.com/Local-Israel/Around-Israel/Where-volunteers-are-no-anachronism Where volunteers are no anachronism], The Jerusalem Post

In 2004, Zochrot began an initiative pairing Bar'am and displaced Kafr Bir'im residents to map possibilities of return and coexistence.

In 2006, during the Second Lebanon War, the kibbutz came under attack from Hezbollah forces and suffered heavy shelling and missile fire which damaged the agricultural fields. The kibbutz is located mere metres away from the Lebanese border, and the Hezbollah flag flying in front of homes across the border is a common sight.{{cite news |title=Rockets Fell on the New Tuscany |url=https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2006/08/17/rockets-fell-on-the-new-tuscany |access-date=12 October 2021 |agency=The Economist |publisher=Economist}} In July 2006, several Katyusha missiles exploded in nearby fields.{{cite news |last1=Einav |first1=Hagai |title=Katyusha rockets hit Galilee |url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3275440,00.html |access-date=12 October 2021 |agency=YNet |publisher=Yedioth Ahronoth}}

In the 2023 conflict between Hamas and Israel, Hezbollah targeted northern Israeli border communities, forcing evacuations, including in Bar'am.{{Cite web |last=Fabian |first=Emanuel |title=IDF to evacuate civilians from 28 communities along Lebanese border amid attacks |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-to-evacuate-civilians-from-28-communities-along-lebanese-border-amid-attacks/ |access-date=2023-10-22 |website=www.timesofisrael.com |language=en-US}}

On October 21, Hezbollah launched anti-tank fire towards Bar'am, resulting in the injury of three IDF soldiers, one of them in serious condition.{{Cite web |date=2023-10-21 |title=Casualties on Israel-Lebanon border as army trades fire with Hezbollah |url=https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20231021-casualties-on-israel-lebanon-border-as-army-trades-fire-with-hezbollah |access-date=2023-10-22 |website=France 24 |language=en}}

The economy of Kibbutz Bar'am is centered around agriculture, as Bar'am is home to numerous orchards where a variety of fruits including apples, pears, nectarines, plums, kiwi, and Chinese gooseberries are grown and harvested. The fields are tended by Jewish volunteers who live on the kibbutz. Some of the volunteers are from Israel, while most of them are Jews from abroad from countries such as Mexico, Canada, Australia, Columbia, the USA, and more. The kibbutz is also home to a packing plant, where the fruit is sorted, packed and kept in cold storage until it is delivered to markets throughout Israel.[http://www.jpost.com/Local-Israel/Around-Israel/Where-volunteers-are-no-anachronism Where volunteers are no anachronism], The Jerusalem Post Other crops include corn, peanuts and sunflower seeds. In addition, the kibbutz has ponds for fish farming. The kibbutz also has land holdings cultivated with cotton in the Hula Valley, near Ne'ot Mordehai.

The kibbutz also has a factory that manufactures plastics for medical purposes.[http://www.jpost.com/Local-Israel/Around-Israel/Where-volunteers-are-no-anachronism Where volunteers are no anachronism], The Jerusalem Post

Bar'am operates the Bar David Museum which houses bi-annual exhibitions from the large permanent collection of paintings and Jewish ritual objects, plus temporary exhibitions of fine art, sculpture and photography, and a small Archeology Room that exhibits objects from the region, such as ceramic and glass artefacts, jewellery and statuettes.

• Oldest synagogues in the world
• Nahal Bar'am

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• {{cite book|title=All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_By7AAAAIAAJ |first=W.|last=Khalidi|author-link=Walid Khalidi|year=1992|location=Washington D.C.|publisher=Institute for Palestine Studies|isbn=0-88728-224-5}}
• {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uM_kFX6edX8C |first=B. |last=Morris |author-link=Benny Morris |year=2004 |title=The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited|isbn=978-0-521-00967-6 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}

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• [http://www.baram.org.il Official website] {{in lang|he}}
• [http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/27523/edition_id/526/format/html/displaystory.html Kibbutzniks trade in socialism for stocks] Atlanta Jewish Times, 4 November 2005
• [http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7804663 Rockets fell on the new Tuscany] The Economist, 17 August 2006
• [http://www.canadaawakening.com/pages/pastreports/israelrep.html the Fourth Annual Inuit-Israeli Tour] Canada Awakening
• [https://www.manar-al-athar.ox.ac.uk/pages/collections_featured.php?parent=6312 Photos of Baram] at the Manar al-Athar photo archive

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Category:Kibbutzim

Category:Kibbutz Movement

Category:Populated places established in 1949

Category:1949 establishments in Israel

Category:Populated places in Northern District (Israel)

Category:Romanian-Jewish culture in Israel