Sde Boker

Sde-Boker is an Israeli Kibbutz in the Negev , in the Southern District of Israel , founded on May 15 , 1952 . From 1963 it was the dwelling place of Israel's first prime minister, David Ben Gurion until his passing in 1973 , who is buried nearby at Midreshet Sde-Boker (Sde-Boker seminary and college) aside his wife Paula Ben-Gurion . Ben-Gurion had a vision of cultivating the arid Negev desert and building up its surrounding towns such as Yerucham and Dimona . He believed that eventually the Negev would be home to many Jews who would move to Israel after having made aliya to Israel, and he felt that Sde-Boker was a trailblaizer and example for what should follow. In his official writings Ben-Gurion often mused about his efforts at rejuvenating the arid Negev: "The desert provides us with the best opportunity to begin again. This is a vital element of our renaissance in Israel. It is in this sense, more practical than mystic, that I define our Redemption on this land. Israel must continue to cultivate its nationality and to represent the Jewish people without renouncing its glorious past. It must earn this – which is no small task – a right that can only be acquired in the desert. When I looked out my window today and saw a tree standing before me, the sight awoke in me a greater sense of beauty and personal satisfaction than all the forests that I have crossed in Switzerland and Scandinavia. Why does a mother love her children so? Because they are her creation. Why does the Jew feel an affinity with Israel? It depends only on him to participate in this privileged act of creation. The trees at Sde Boker speak to me differently than do the trees planted elsewhere. Not only because I participated in their planting and in their maintenance, but also because they are a gift of man to nature and a gift of the Jews to the compost of their culture." [1]¹