Kinneret Courtyard (Hatzar Kinneret)

Kinneret Courtyard is located at the entrance of the small town (Moshava) of Kinneret – one of the most important and interesting sites in the history of Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel. Having remained deserted for decades, the Courtyard resumed its operation at the initiative of the Society for Preservation of Sites, the Jordan Valley Regional Council and the Society for the Preservation of Kinneret Courtyard. The Courtyard was established in 1908 on the lands of Dleika and Umm Djuni with the goal of training Jewish agricultural workers for permanent settlement. Kinnert Yard was a sort of a laboratory, a melting pot in which the first buds of social ideas appeared, such as the Kvutza, Kibbutz and Moshav. Central figures in the history of the Jewish settlement lived and acted here: A.D. Gordon, Rachel the poetess, the agronomist Hana Meisel, Berl Katznelson, Zalman Shazar and others.

What’s at the site: a visitor and guidance center for the heritage of the Second Aliyah and settlement of the Jordan Valley operates at the site. The tour of the site includes the Courtyard’s buildings, the dining room, the barn, the maiden farm, the khan and a short film on Rachel the poetess.

For the general public: guided tours and an introduction to the site’s fascinating history, people and ideas that flourished there, an impression of the restoration and reconstruction works and  visit to other prominent sites in the area (the famous cemetery of Kinneret, the motor house at the entrance to the groups (Kvutzot) of Kinneret, Bitanya Ilit and more.

For children: active and dramatized guidance and activity sheets.