IN a clean, quiet street, edged on both sides of the road by trees, a 30-minute drive from Tel Aviv, stands an old, well-kept building, once a hive of activity, now a museum. Originally the Ness Ziona Settlers Community Center, where all activities took place - school, municipality, weddings, and funerals, a gathering place for the young and old - today it houses the town's history.

Now known as Beit Rishonim, it was built in 1906 by the people for the people and stands at the foot of the 'Hill of Love', a green and pleasant place.

Steep stone steps lead to a park where the settlers and their families flocked, young couples courted, girls and boys flirted, people laughed and mourned and families sat and gossiped.

This, then, was the sum token of the settlers' social life from the cradle to the grave. It is flanked by a synagogue built by the first 30 families over a five year period after a day's work in the fields.

ORIGINALLY known in Arabic as Wadi El Khanin (Valley of the Roses), later expanding to a settlement, stands a small stone house, rebuilt by its Russian owner, Reuben Lehrer, born Patchornek, on hundreds of dunams of land. He lived there with his wife Faige and his family. They had trekked all the way from Odessa and were surrounded by Arabs, some friendly, but many not, living their dream in the middle of uncultivated land and desert, ruled by the Turks, under the Ottoman Empire.

Kidnapped with other Jewish children in Russia as a small boy in order to be drafted into the Russian army, Reuben Patchornek escaped and for several years he hid and ran, making his way to Odessa to his uncle, and once again into hiding.

There were many German settlers in the Odessa area, one of whom was a friend of the uncle who offered to take in Reuben. He used the name of Lehrer in order that he would not be recognized, kidnapped and forcibly drafted once again. The German eventually adopted him legally.

Reuben started to rent and farm land and at age 20 became independent. He left his uncle and opened a business in Odessa with another young Jew, supplying the Russian army with horses, food and guns for the battle of Sabastopol. The business thrived and they became very, very rich!

He met and married Faige in Odessa where she gave birth to 17 children. Only half of them survived over the years. Reuben and Faige came to Palestine with five of their offspring. The others remained in Russia with their families. Then came the pogroms! Many Jews went to the US, Europe and Palestine, which in 1880 was ruled by the Turks.

THE settlement built on private land, later known as 'Nachalat Reuben' and finally 'Ness Ziona', was originally established by one man who came with his family, a German Christian Templer called Resler. He bought the land from Arabs and invested his money in it. However, both his wife and his children died of malaria so he decided to return to Germany. He then traveled to Odessa. There he met Reuben Lehrer in 1883 and made a barter deal. Resler would exchange his land in Palestine - 1500 dunams (350 acres) - for Lehrer's land in Odessa.

Lehrer, an Orthodox Jew, motivated by religious Zionist feelings, felt this was a message from God to come to Palestine. He would meet the Messiah and build a nation. He was 55 years old and his wife Faige was 59, then considered a great age.

However, Faige at 62 bore him another child, a boy. But, unhappily the child lived only a year. Lehrer died in 1917 at the age of 90; Faige outlived him until 1939, dying at the outbreak of World War II at the age of 116.

AT the time of the Resler-Lehrer barter, Austrian-born Theodore Herzl was active in the Zionist Movement and was a great supporter of settlement activity. So, too, were the Rothschilds. Immigration to Palestine was established in an organized fashion, based on groups of families and youth movements, supported with money raised in Eastern Europe, following the pogroms in 1880. Approximately six settlements were organized, the settlers were funded with money to farm the land and told where to go.

REUBEN Lehrer wanted to work the land and learn Torah and was told the land he had gained by barter was near Jerusalem. He was in for his first disappointment. He came with his eldest son Moshe, but on arrival found Jerusalem was nowhere near, the Arabs had taken everything from the house, there was no water supply, the land was deserted and the house stood on sand where camels walked.

So, Reuben and Moshe set about restoring the house and made the water system work. After which he went back to Russia to get his family and brought five of them back to Palestine. The family grew grapes, almonds, became beekeepers, made honey and were the first Jews in Palestine to use a modern system of agricultural production.

IN 1887 Lehrer posted a notice for newcomers at the gates of Jaffa Port - then known to Jews as 'the Gate of Aliya' - at which newcomers were begged to join his estate and carry out the biblical injunction to populate the Land. And they did.

Reuben had decided to found a settlement with a 'heder ' (religious primary school) and a 'minyan' ( 10 Jewish males, the minimum number required to hold prayer services) and call it 'Nachalat Reuben'. The first newcomer, a woman, Golda Miloslawsky, invested in a parcel of land for her family. They planted vineyards and grew roses famous for their beauty. She would ride to work on a donkey carrying a spade and a sword, tend her land and was renowned for her courage.

NEXT came Aaron Eisenberg from Pinsk, a master stone-cutter. He settled in the Valley of the Roses (Wadi El Khanin).

Abraham Yalowsky, Talmudic scholar turned blacksmith followed, settling on the road leading from Jaffa to Beer Sheva. He was the first to be murdered by Arabs while defending his home.

Zalman Fisher with his wife Bella arrived, and he too, several years later, was murdered by Arabs in his orange groves. His grandson, Zalman Grossman, who bears a strong resemblance to him, is a volunteer in the Beit Rishonim Museum and has built and maintains all the beautiful wooden furniture and fittings.

MICHAEL Halperin, born in Riga, came with a lot of money plus leadership qualities matching Reuben's. He bought 200 dunams and decided to build a moshava (a settlement). He organized a group of horse riders, then the only method of travel, and in 1905 rode to the settlement for the circumcision of Ben Carmi, Eisenberg's first-born, the inauguration of the new communal house and the foundation of his 'Home for the Workers of Hovevei Zion'.

He had also established a convalescent home for the wounded of 'Machane Yehuda', the first military nucleus in the Yishuv. On this occasion he was instrumental in planting the first seeds of nation-building.

Heading a column of Machane Yehuda horsemen, he made history. He sat on his horse near the bonfire where speeches were being made, drew his sword, struck his right hand until blood flowed, and followed by his horsemen, jumped over the bonfire reciting 'If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its cunning!' To the cheers of the crowd he produced a white flag with blue stripes bearing the Star of David, under which, embroidered in gold, was written 'Ness Ziona'. Hoisting it on high, he then planted it firmly in the earth and named the settlement 'Ness Ziona - Flag of Zion.' Independent of the Rothschilds, but living under the Ottoman Empire and ruled by the Turks, a rebel at heart, Michael Halperin wanted the settlers to have their own flag. Such a deed would have earned the death penalty were the Turks to learn about it. But news traveled slowly in those days and so the flag has flown undisturbed in Ness Ziona ever since.

A settlement bell was erected at the top of the 'Hill of Love', and was rung to wake the workers and recall them from the fields in the evening, or to ring sharply and loudly to call defenders to battle stations in emergencies when it became the 'Hill of Defense'.

Today this bell stands quietly by the Museum for all to see, brightly burnished, with its message, proclaiming that this was the fortress of Ness Ziona, the last line of security, and later served as Hagana Headquarters where an arms cache was hidden under the floor.

At the end of the second decade the settlements unified, bought an additional 600 dunams, including the hill separating them, and became Ness Ziona.

IN 1893, on its 10th anniversary, small and independent as it was, Ness Ziona had its first minyan. There was no problem. There were 10 families! Some had come on a French and Austrian radio communication ship from Odessa.

Among these were the Zemels, grandparents of Noam and Adi Semel, director-general of the Cameri Theater and The Cultural Center of Rishon-le-Zion respectively. Their uncle, one of the original settlers, Zerubavel Zemel, has just passed away at the age of 90.

Noam says: 'My father, Yosef Semel, was born in Ness Ziona, which was a village for five years before the birth of the State of Israel. An ardent Zionist, he was head of the village minorities, both Arabs and Jews.' In 1948 his father was the first elected mayor of Ness Ziona, 'Unfortunately, he died when I was seven,' says Noam, but proudly adds, 'my grandfather was Rabbi HaKook. In 1935 he was the Chief Rabbi when Palestine was under the Mandate.'

NOAM remembers growing up with two families, all Holocaust survivors. In September 1998 he decided to organize a family reunion. Over 700 descendants flocked from many corners of the world - Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and, of course, Israel - to meet each other.

'I wanted to celebrate Ness Ziona's 115 years and invited all the descendants of the first settlers. The Patchchorniks look after bees and make honey and the Boxer branch makes wine! So it all stays in the family! It was a wonderful experience.'

MICHAEL Halperin took his flag to the First Jewish Congress in Basel, headed by Theodore Herzl, and offered it as the official Zionist flag with 'Ness Ziona' deleted. It became a proud symbol of freedom and was officially adopted by the State of Israel as the national flag.

Aaron Eisenberg, the original founder of Rehovot, had plans of his own and in 1890 was using his experience and expertise to establish what is now a thriving and busy city, known internationally as the home of the Weizmann Institute.

THE flag bearing the Magen David and blue tallit (prayer shawl) waving in the wind on its white background, standing beside the original house of Reuben Lehrer on Derech Yavne, is immediately recognized worldwide as the Flag of Israel. 'Ness Ziona' in Hebrew also means Miracle of Zion. You can take your pick!

For those who are curious and want to discover an exciting and valuable piece of our living history, Ness Ziona is alive and well and there to explore.

ON Derech Yavne stands a cement signpost on green grass encircled by flowers which reads 'The old mulberry tree under which sat the community leaders.' Next to it is the original house of Reuben Lehrer sign-posted 'The strawberry tree area - Reuben's heritage' with an explanation as follows: 'In 1887 Reuben's Heritage Settlement was established by the founder Lehrer. Then members of HaMinyan HaRishon, who had responded forcibly to the urging of Reuben Lehrer, founded the settlement in Reuben's Heritage. They purchased land from Lehrer and established a Cooperative House which served as the unofficial center of the entire settlement.'

Post No. 8 'The Flag Route' - stands in cement in front of the Cooperative House and the Founder's House with details of 'Wadi El Khanin'. It reads 'In this settlement an independent Jewish community was established. It was there that the original Hebrew flag was raised. It was imprinted in gold letters with the words 'Ness Ziona'.

Nearby there are several additional cement signposts. One commemorates the hoisting of the flag with Halperin's words, 'May I lose my right hand if I forget thee Jerusalem', plus three others announcing 'The Cooperative House', 'The Strawberry Tree', under which the community leaders planned independent Jewish settlement affairs and 'The Founders' House.'