A collection of over a thousand letters and documents documenting life in the colonies in Palestine and the early years of the State, many of them sent to or by Chaim Ariav (1895-1957), secretary of the Farmers' Union and director of The Association of Local Councils. Palestine, 1930s and 1940s (some earlier or later). Hebrew and some English.
Most of the collection consists of correspondence between Ariav and mayors or secretaries of colonies in Palestine: Petach Tikvah, Zichron Yaakov, Rishon LeZion, Rosh Pinah, Ness Ziona, Hadera, Mazkeret Batya, and more (many of the letters were sent to or by colony mayors, some of them important figures in the history of the Jewish settlement in Palestine – Shlomo Stampfer of Petach Tikvah, Aryeh Grushkevitz of Kiryat Motzkin, Yehuda Gorodisky of Rechovot, Abba Shechter of Rishon LeZion and more). The letters deal mostly with administrative issues – budgets, education, agriculture, and many of them bear official stamps.
The most important part of the collection consists of hundreds of letters and documents from the period of the War of Independence, documenting the lives of the farmers and the colonies in the shadow of the war: inventory of ammunition and rifles in the colonies, dozens of tables calculating the financial damage and detailing the assistance that will be sent to the colonies, requests for guards and weapons, protocols of emergency conferences pertaining to the colonies, personal letters sent by citrus growers requesting to relieve their sons from military duty, a list of names of residents evacuated from the colony of Rosh Pinah and more.
In addition, the archive contains dozens of documents pertaining to the attempts of the colony members to obtain immigration certificates for their family members in Europe (including lists of applicants, notifications about the reception of certificates by the Jewish Agency, applications, and more).
The documents and letters are alphabetically organized by colony names in binders and files (except for documents pertaining to security and immigration visas, which are organized in separate files). Enclosed are several printed items – posters, leaflets, a map and additional items related to Ariav's activity during this time.
Chaim Ariav (1895-1957), secretary of the Zionist Commission, Secretary General of the Jewish Agency and eventually, member of the second and third Knesset. During the Mandate period, he served as secretary of the Farmers' Union and the director of the Association of Local Councils.
Over a thousand documents and letters. Size and condition vary.