Gezer

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Located in the “Shfelah” (lowland), and famous for its baseball field (!) Gezer is a kibbutz located between Modi’in, Ramle and Rehovot. Its land was purchased in 1945 by the philanthropic society Ancient Order of Maccabeans in England and its early residents were immigrants from Europe. They named it after Tel Gezer, the archaeological site nearby with remains from the Canaanite city-state and biblical town. The eight monumental style monoliths found at Tel Gezer are particularly striking in Biblical archaeology terms. In more modern terms, it was the sight of trauma.

A day after the attempt to take nearby Latrun (June 10, 1948), a battalion-sized troupe of the Arab Legion attacked the kibbutz. Sixty-eight Haganah soldiers defended the kibbutz but 39 defenders fell, 12 people escaped and the kibbutz was abandoned. The battle continued into the night when two Palmach squads took it back.

Rebuilt after the war, the kibbutz suffered from internal social problems and fell apart in 1964. Ten years later, a new kibbutz of the same name was founded by a “garin” (core group) from North America. Israel’s version of “field of dreams” can be found at the new kibbutz, for where Americans go, so does baseball. Kibbutz Gezer Field is one of the few regulation-size baseball fields in the entire country, backed by American donors. Construction in 1983 took six weeks and the first game was played within a few months. For the 1989 Maccabiah Games, a scoreboard and outfield fence were added to the ballpark.

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