Nehara Country Lodging is located in Kibbutz Ashdot Yaakov (Ihud), founded in 1924 by 35 Latvian members of the Halutz movement, a global Zionist movement which organized Jewish youth coming to the Land of Israel. The group’s objective was to create a communal, equal and liberated society. They first settled at the site of “Old Gesher”, east of the area where Kibbutz Gesher is located today. After 10 difficult years at Gesher, battling extreme heat and diseases, the pioneers moved from Gesher to the Dalamia grounds, east of the Jordan River and above the Yarmouk, on which was founded  Kibbutz Ashdot Yaakov.

The name of the Kibbutz- “Ashdot Yaakov” consists of two words with great significance in the story of the Kibbutz’s beginning. The word “Ashdot” or brooks was chosen because of the babbling brooks of the nearby Yarmouk river and the word “Yaakov” was chosen as a tribute to Yaakov (James) De Rothschild, who assisted in purchasing the land the Kibbutz was built on along with the Jewish National Fund.

Following the great political crisis that occurred in the United Kibbutz Movement, which at the time was very large and influential, and led to a split in the movement between supporters of the Mapai Party (the Social Democratic Party) and of Mapam (the Socialist Party), there was a rift in Kibbutz Ashdot Yaakov (making it the first Kibbutz to experience a separation process). The Kibbutz was at its peak in 1951, when it split to form “Ashdot Yaakov Ihud”, whose members identified with Mapai, and “Ashdot Yaakov Meuhad” who identified with Mapam, with a virtual line separating the two Kibbutzim.

In Ashdot Yaakov (Ihud) now live over 700 members of different ages, from children to senior citizens. Both Kibbutzim now reside peacefully in cooperation with one another and both identify with the United Kibbutz Movement.