Sara Malkin Born in 1885 Made Aliya in 1904 Died on Feb. 21, 1949

No documents from the period of her childhood and youth, which could tell of her family and her schooling, have remained. It is known that she was the daughter of a working family and from an early age she worked to support herself. Her first public activity in Russia, was volunteer work for the organization “Assistance For The Needy And The Poor”. Because she came from the ranks of the poor she understood the needs of those people and she knew how to help them. She was an active member of “The Young People Of Zion” and made converts to Zionism. When the Russian authorities prohibited Zionism she continued her activities in the underground organization.

She was among the first to arrive with the Second Aliya and together with her friends she struggled for a day’s work in the orchards of the farmers of the colonies. Young, refined, small in stature, she was quiet and had an aristocratic character. But she was obstinate and unrelenting in her principles and aspirations. “My soul longs for agricultural work in particular”, she said, and in her words there was, apart from Zionist need, also a personal, human need. She was instrumental in setting up enterprises to aid the workers’ community. Among other things she assisted in setting up the hospital in Zichron-Ya’akov under the direction of Dr. Hillel Yaffe, and she worked there as a nurse. She also had a part in setting up a study farm for female workers on Kinneret under the direction of Channa Meizel – a farm where female workers were trained for agricultural work.
In 1910 she moved to Um-Juni with the “Chaderite Commune” , with the aim of taking over the lands there, and together with the group she took the first steps in setting up the first Kibbutz – Degania. She left Degania in favor of her struggle to free women from housework.

In 1917, she moved with the “Galilee Women” group to Petach-Tikva and trained groups of female workers, mainly in agricultural work. She gave support to her friends, girls from the Third Aliya, inspired them with her spirit and eased their difficulties in adjusting to the new society. She never established a home for herself, not on Kinneret nor on Degania, and she moved from one woman’s group to another. She was active in organizing workers’ lives wherever she was needed.
In 1926 she went for a year’s training at a chicken farm in Germany “Shilhoo”, and upon her return she received the directorship of a farm for female workers in Afula. She instructed hundreds of women workers for a life of agriculture in Israel.

During her last years, when she was ill and in need of assistance, the members of Degania invited her to live with them on the Kibbutz, where her relative, Haya, cared for her. On Degania she witnessed the independence of the state of Israel. At the time of the evacuation, as the War of Independence raged ever closer to Degania, she left Degania with most of the women and children, and while away, she died. She was brought back to Degania for burial, and was laid to rest next to Yossef Bussel, A.D. Gordon and Arthur Ruppin, her friends from the Workers’ Movement.
In her lifetime, Sara gave faithful expression to the guiding principles of the Woman-Worker’s Movement in Israel.
May she rest in peace.