Merhavia (moshav)
In the metaphorical sense: "God set me free" - the experience of the Jews immigrating to the Land of Israel and achieving a new homeland without the straits of persecution.It was supposed to operate as a co-operative farm with differential wages, and was founded with the assistance of Arthur Ruppin, Yehoshua Hankin, the Anglo-Palestine Bank and Eliyahu Blumenfeld.Alexander Baerwald designed and built the first solid buildings and the road net with a central square in 1915.[3] In 1922 it was converted to a moshav ovdim[dubious – discuss] after being joined by Polish-Jewish immigrants and residents of Tel Aviv who wanted to work in agriculture.[citation needed] According to a census conducted in the same year by the British Mandate authorities, the settlement had a population of 135 Jews.