Yigal Allon was born in Kfar Tavor in 1918. The name Yigal was a new one at the time and certainly influenced by the prevailing Zionist spirit. The Hebrew word Goel means redeemer and his parents chose the name Yigal, which means, “He will redeem.”
Yigal Allon’s geneology follows the moving story of the Jews returning to their historic homeland (Hebrew: Eretz Yisrael, “Land of Israel”) and establishing settlements there. His grandfather was one of these first Jewish settlers, helping found Rosh Pina (north of the Sea of Galilee), a settlement established in 1882.
Yigal’s parents helped found Kfar Tavor, a little farming village situated west of the Sea of Galilee at the foot of Mount Tabor. The Tabor landscapes were his childhood landscapes, but they followed him throughout his life, wherever he went.
Yigal Allon himself helped found Kibbutz Ginosar on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee, built by a group of pioneers who settled their community there despite the difficult physical conditions they faced.
Yigal Allon was active in forming the main pre-state self-defense force of the Zionist Movement—the Haganah—which later, after the State of Israel was declared, became the core of the Israel Defense Forces. He was one of the chief commanders during the War of Independence (1948) and the strategist of the Six-Day War (1967).
And yet Yigal Allon was a peace loving man. He believed that all citizens of the country—Jews, Christians and Muslims—should enjoy a life of economic, social and cultural prosperity and that we must learn to live in coexistence, peace, mutual understanding, and productive cooperation.
He served in various government positions, including Minister of Labor, Absorption, Education and Foreign Affairs, and as Deputy Prime Minister. Yigal died February 29th, 1980, and was buried on the shore of Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) in the cemetery of Kibbutz Ginosar.
With his sudden death in 1980, Yigal Allon’s many friends determined to establish a memorial center at Kibbutz Ginosar (click here to read about Allon’s latest memorial). For this purpose, Yigal Allon’s classmates from Kaduri, fellow members of Ginosar, comrades from the Palmach (the elite strike force of the Haganah) like Yitzhak Rabin, friends from the kibbutz movement, his Arab friends, Knesset members and ministers all joined together. The Israeli government, headed at the time by Menachem Begin, contributed substantially to the initial stages of the undertaking.
As Yitzhak Ben-Aharon summed up: “Yigal Allon was everything: a warrior, a settler, a friend of the Arabs in the Galilee, a diplomat, a friend and a family man. Yigal Allon loved to emphasize the fact that he was a man of the Galilee.” Thus, there seems no more appropriate theme for the museum than “Man in the Galilee.”
