page_title: Kvutzat Kinneret
section_title: Yemenite group
hierarchical_section_title: Kvutzat Kinneret / History / Yemenite group
caption_attribution_description: עברית: כפר מרמורק - מושב תימנים
context_page_description: Kvutzat Kinneret, also known as Kibbutz Kinneret, is a kibbutz in northern Israel. The settlement group was established in 1913, and moved from the Kinneret training farm to the permanent location in 1929. Located to the southwest of the Sea of Galilee near Tiberias and next to Moshavat Kinneret, it falls under the jurisdiction of Emek HaYarden Regional Council. In 2019 it had a population of 689.
context_section_description: In 1912, the pioneers at the Kinneret Farm and Degania were joined by ten Yemenite Jewish families who worked in draining swamps, as also in growing vegetables. Because of cultural differences between the Yemenite and Ashkenazi workers, the former were lodged in the two noisy and oil fumes-filled storage rooms of the so-called "motor house" of the water pumping station, received less than half the land and earned half the wages of Ashkenazi workers, and were not invited to join the kvutza. Once the kvutza leadership decided that they must leave, water was withheld from them, as was milk for their children. Due to the poor living and working conditions, many children and adults died, not least of malaria. In 1930, after eighteen years at the site, they were finally compelled to leave the area. The ten families resettled in Kfar Marmorek, then a new workers' moshav and now a suburb of Rehovot. Although they had contributed a great deal to develop the area, the Arabic-speaking, religiously observant Yemenites were not considered suitable to join the kibbutz. Once the Motor House was transformed into a museum in 1994, a plaque placed there and commemorating the Yemenite pioneers was removed by kibbutz members; the ensuing legal battle was ongoing as of 2009.
caption: Kfar Marmorek 1935
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