Degania Alef and
Degania Bet are kibbutzes located in the northern part of
Israel in the Jordan Valley.
Southwest of Lake Tiberias or the Kinneret, Degania A was started in 1910 when twelve members of the Zionist movement established an independent commune. The settlers sought to build a new life, based on the principles of independent work and collective living, and thus set the course of the kibbutz movement. The Russian immigrants were not prepared for the rigors of farming and malaria, however, and faced many difficulties.
Degania B is located adjacent to Degania A. It was founded in 1920, also by immigrants of the second aliyah, a wave of Zionist immigration.
A cemetery lies next to the two early communes, the burial ground for many early and noted Zionist thinkers. Among them is the poet Rachel, who wrote about the difficulties of close quarters, hard work and idealism. In one isolated side of the cemetery are buried Sephardic Jews who were recruited by the kibbutz residents to aid in the hard labor.
In 2007, Degania A was the first Israeli kibbutz to be privatized. Degania A is presently classified as a zzz*zrenewal kibbutzzzz*z on the basis of the varied salaries of its members and the according distribution of property.