Which country did Degania Alef belong to from 1917 to 1918?
Degania Alef Degania Alef ( , ) is a kibbutz in northern Israel . The Jewish communal settlement started off in 1910 , making it the earliest socialist Zionist farming commune in the Land of Israel . Its status as the mother of all kibbutzim is sometimes contested based on a later distinction made between the smaller kvutza , applying to Degania in its beginnings , and the larger kibbutz . It falls under the jurisdiction of the Emek HaYarden Regional Council . Degania Alef and its neighbour Degania Bet both lie between the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River . As of it had a population of . Etymology . Degania means cornflower and is derived from דגן dagán , meaning grain . After the first phase at Umm Junieh , the group and its settlement was simply called Degania , Alef being added only after the establishment of the associated kibbutzim of Degania Bet and Gimel in 1920 . Alef , Bet and Gimel are the first letters of the Hebrew alphabet and carry the numerical values 1 , 2 and 3 . History . Roman period . According to the 1881 Survey of Western Palestine , Umm Junieh was possibly the place called Union , or Homonœa , by Josephus ( Vita , 54 ) . Ottoman period . Umm Junieh village . The Muslim village called Umm Junieh is mentioned during the Late Ottoman period ( late 19th century ) at the site from which the first Jewish settlers would start establishing their community in 1909–1910 . A map from Napoleons invasion of 1799 by Pierre Jacotin showed the place as ruined . Umm Junieh was just by the ancient bridge known in Arabic as Jisr es-Sidd , which was also noted as ruined by Jacotin . In 1875 , Victor Guérin observed the village of Oumm Djouneh , sitting on a hill east of the river Jordan . In 1881 , the PEFs Survey of Western Palestine ( SWP ) described the place , cited as Umm Junieh , as a stone and adobe village , on the east side of the river Jordan , on the top of the eastern bank of the river . It contained about 250 Muslim inhabitants . All the plain around was arable soil ; no trees . A mill was worked at the village . A population list from about 1887 showed that Umm Juny had about 330 inhabitants , all Muslim . Beginnings of Degania . Degania ( later Degania Alef ) was the first kvutza-type agricultural settlement established by Zionist pioneers of the New Yishuv under Ottoman rule . The location was south-west of the Sea of Galilee , at a place known in Arabic as Umm Junieh or Umm Juni , within the administrative Ottoman area of Acre Sanjak . It was founded in 1910 by a group of eight men and a one woman , the [ labour ] conquest group , followed at the end of the same year by what would become the permanent settlers group ( ten men and two women ) . In June 1912 , the group moved from the mud huts and wooden shack of Umm Juni to the new stone-built compound at its permanent location . That is at the place where the Jordan River emerges from the Sea of Galilee and therefore had the Arabic name Bab al-Tumm , Gate of the Mouth . The poetess Rachel Bluwstein , the prophet of labor A . D . Gordon , and paramilitary commander and leading Zionist Joseph Trumpeldor all worked at Degania Alef . Zionist pioneer and future Israeli politician Yosef Baratz was among the founders of Degania Alef . On June 5 , 1912 , he married and started the first family . His first child , Gideon Baratz ( 1913-1988 ) , who was born in Degania Alef , was the first child born in a Jewish collective community in Palestine . The second child to be born in Degania Alef was the prominent Israeli general and politician Moshe Dayan . Dayan was named after Moshe Barsky , a member of Degania Alef who was the first kibbutz member killed in an Arab attack . Barsky was killed in November 1913 . He was alone in the kibbutz fields when he was shot in the back and left for dead by Arab marauders . British Mandate . In 1920 two new kibbutzim , Degania Bet and Degania Gimel , were established to the south of what consequently became Degania Alef or Aleph . By 1947 Degania Alef had a population of 380 . State of Israel . On May 20 , 1948 , during the Battles of the Kinarot Valley , in one of the first battles of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War , the residents of Degania Alef and Bet , assisted by a small number of military personnel , repelled a Syrian attack and succeeded in halting the advance of the Syrian army into the Jordan Valley . During the attack Degania Alef was completely destroyed by the Syrian army . According to a 1949 book by the Jewish National Fund , the village was destroyed following attacks on the neighboring kibbutzim of Shaar HaGolan and Masada . The settlers resisted , however , and launched a counter-attack which helped to recover the neighboring settlements . Reconstruction started almost immediately . Economy . In 2007 , Degania Alef moved to undergo privatisation . Instead of assigned jobs and equal pay under the former communal economy , the reorganisation requires members to find employment , live on their income , and allows them to own their homes , but still offers a form of a social safety net supplement for members whose livelihood is inadequate to meet their expenses . This move to privatisation was chronicled in Yitzhak Rubins 2008 documentary , . Awards and recognition . In 1981 , Kvutza Degania Alef was awarded the Israel Prize , for its special contribution to society and the State in social pioneering . Notable members and residents . - Rachel Bluwstein ( a.k.a . Rachel the Poetess ; 1890–1931 ) , national poet - Moshe Dayan ( 1915–1981 ) , military man and politician ; second child born here - A . D . Gordon ( 1856–1922 ) , Zionist ideologist ( the prophet of labor ) and pioneer - Joseph Trumpeldor ( 1880–1920 ) , Zionist leader , army officer - Yosef Baratz ( 1890–1968 ) , one of the founders ; Zionist activist and Israeli politician