Yad Ya'Ar/יד יערי

Yad Yaari is the research and documentation center of Hashomer Hatzair Movement and the Kibbutz Artzi Federation. It is comprised of two distinct departments: central archive (founded 1937) and research. Both sections focus on the history and current issues of the kibbutz movement, the youth movement and Israeli society. The center, through its documentation, research, publications and public activities, preserves and promotes the movement heritage and exposes its many facets – past and present: the historical, cultural, economic, political, educational, sociological and more. The archive also serves as a home for other allied organizations such as Peace Now. Yad Yaari supports and works towards peace, social solidarity and social advancement as reflected in the kibbutz ideals and legacy.  

The first steps and the development of the Archive were integrated with the development of the Kibbutz Artzi Federation. Kibbutz Artzi and its secretariat were founded in 1927. For a decade the archive material wandered, stored in sacks (according to popular legend), from settlement to settlement, depending on where the secretariat was located at the time. In 1937 the Archive was set up in one of the rooms of the Movement House in Merchavia by Shlomo Rechav. The economic base for the Archive consisted of three workdays a week and one Mandatory Lira (pound, the currency in use at the time). Shlomo Rechav, who was acutely aware of the historical importance of the Archive, succeeded in obtaining material from HaShomer HaTzair in the various European countries. Whatever didn’t find its way to the Archive by 1939, and wasn’t held personally by former members of the movement, was lost. The Archive includes millions of varied documents: publications including journals, visual items and audio-visual material. Most of the material is computerized and conveniently accessible. The material is kept in three air-conditioned storerooms, safeguarded against fire, damage by natural causes, or human intervention. The Photograph Archive consists of 70,000 photographs and another approximately 4,000 of the Moreshet Archive. All the photographs have been cataloged in the archive computer system and about half of them have been scanned already. In addition, the Archive holds the Al HaMishmar newspaper's photograph collection, consisting of some 120,000 items. The HaShomer HaTzair Archive also includes a considerable number of sections on HaShomer HaTzair in the early years of the Twentieth Century, and material on youth movements that preceded HaShomer HaTzair. The Archive is divided into three major bodies of material: 1. The world HaShomer HaTzair Movement from its beginning up to the present; 2. The political activity of HaShomer HaTzair in Israel and abroad from its beginning up to the present (Mapam, Meretz-Yachad, more); 3. The various activities and departments of Kibbutz Artzi, its cultural and economic institutions.