Ein Tzurim ( he, עֵין צוּרִים, ''lit.'' Rock Spring) is a religious

kibbutz A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...

in southern

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Located south of

Kiryat Malakhi Kiryat Malakhi ( he, קִרְיַת מַלְאָכִי, also Qiryat Malakhi or Kiryat Malachi) is a city in the Southern District of Israel, from Ashkelon. In it had a population of . Its jurisdiction is 4,632 dunams (~4.6 km2). Histor ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Shafir Regional Council Shafir Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית שפיר, ''Mo'atza Azorit Shafir'') is a List of regional councils in Israel, regional council in the Southern District (Israel), Southern District of Israel near the city of Kiryat Gat. The c ...

and is a member of the

Religious Kibbutz Movement The Religious Kibbutz Movement ( he, הקיבוץ הדתי, ''HaKibbutz HaDati'') is an organizational framework for Orthodox kibbutzim in Israel. Its membership includes 22 communities, 16 of them traditional kibbutzim, and 6 others in the cate ...

. In it had a population of .

History

Original kibbutz

The kibbutz was founded on 23 October 1946 as a new settlement in

Gush Etzion Gush Etzion ( he, גּוּשׁ עֶצְיוֹן, ' Etzion Bloc) is a cluster of Israeli settlements located in the Judaean Mountains, directly south of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in the West Bank. The core group includes four Jewish agricultural v ...

(east of the present-day location). Its founders were Palestine-born members of the fifth

gar'in Gar'in (, ''lit.'' kernel) is a Hebrew term used for groups of people who moved together to Ottoman Palestine, British Palestine, and since 1948, Israel.Joel Beinin The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry- 2005 9774248902 "arrived in Israel while the mi ...

Bnei Akiva Bnei Akiva ( he, בְּנֵי עֲקִיבָא, , "Children of Akiva") is the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, with over 125,000 members in 42 countries. It was first established in Mandatory Palestine in 1929. History B ...

that had formed in

Tirat Zvi Tirat Zvi ( he, טִירַת צְבִי, lit. ''Zvi Castle'') is a religious kibbutz in the Beit She'an Valley, ten kilometers south of the city of Beit She'an, Israel, just west of the Jordan River and the Israel-Jordan border. It falls under the ...

. By 1947 the kibbutz had a population of 80. However, during the

1948 Arab–Israeli war The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

, it was destroyed by the

Jordanian army The Royal Jordanian Army (Arabic: القوّات البرية الاردنيّة; ) is the ground force branch of the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF). It draws its origins from units such as the Arab Legion, formed in the British Mandate of Transj ...

along with all the other settlements in Gush Etzion. The men who stayed to fight were captured as prisoners of war and taken to the Mafrak Prisoner of War camp. With the renewal of Jewish settlement in Gush Etzion after the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

, a new kibbutz called

Rosh Tzurim Rosh Tzurim ( he, רֹאשׁ צוּרִים, eng. Top of the Rocks) is an Israeli settlement and religious kibbutz in the West Bank established in 1969. It is located about south of Jerusalem, 3.9 km east of the Green Line, inside barr ...

was founded on the original location of Ein Tzurim.

Relocation

In 1949 the people who left Ein Tzurim founded a new kibbutz in south-central Israel near the existing villages of Zerahia,

Shafir Shafir ( he, שָׁפִיר) is a moshav in southern Israel. Located in the Shephelah near Kiryat Malakhi, it falls under the jurisdiction of Shafir Regional Council. In it had a population of . History Shafir was founded on 15 August 1949 by imm ...

and

Merkaz Shapira Merkaz Shapira ( he, מֶרְכַּז שַׁפִּירָא) (lit: Shapira Center) is a religious village in the Southern District of Israel. Located in the southern Shephelah between Kiryat Malakhi and Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of ...

, and they named it "Ein Tzurim" as a symbol of continuity. It was founded on land belonging to the depopulated Palestinian village of

al-Sawafir al-Sharqiyya Al-Sawafir al-Sharqiyya was a Palestinian Arab village in the Gaza Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 War on May 18, 1948, as part of the second stage of Operation Barak. The village was located 32 km northeast of Gaza. Histor ...

. In the 1980s two major educational centers were built in the area of the kibbutz; Yeshivat Kibbutz HaDati and the

Yaakov Herzog Yaakov Herzog ( he, יעקב דוד הרצוג, 11 December 1921 – 9 March 1972) was an Irish-born Israeli diplomat. Biography Yaakov Herzog was born in Dublin, Ireland. His father was Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog, the second Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of ...

Center for the Study of

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

. However, in 2008 the yeshiva closed due to insufficient enrollment.Swan song for kibbutz yeshiva
Ynetnews, 3 October 2008 Every Yom Kippur former students return to pray together. After the

Gaza disengagement The Israeli disengagement from Gaza ( he, תוכנית ההתנתקות, ') was the unilateral dismantling in 2005 of the 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip and the evacuation of Israeli settlers and army from inside the Gaza Strip. Th ...

in 2005, some evacuees from

Gush Katif Gush Katif ( he, גוש קטיף, , Harvest Bloc) was a bloc of 17 Israeli settlements in the southern Gaza strip. In August 2005, the Israeli army forcibly removed the 8,600 residents of Gush Katif from their homes after a decision from the Ca ...

moved into a

trailer park A trailer park,caravan park, mobile home park, mobile home community or manufactured home community is a temporary or permanent area for mobile homes and travel trailers. Advantages include low cost compared to other housing, and quick and eas ...

near the kibbutz and plans were drawn up for permanent housing.

Economy

The economy is based on fruit orchards (

lemon The lemon (''Citrus limon'') is a species of small evergreen trees in the flowering plant family Rutaceae, native to Asia, primarily Northeast India (Assam), Northern Myanmar or China. The tree's ellipsoidal yellow fruit is used for culin ...

and

persimmon The persimmon is the edible fruit of a number of species of trees in the genus ''Diospyros''. The most widely cultivated of these is the Oriental persimmon, ''Diospyros kaki'' ''Diospyros'' is in the family Ebenaceae, and a number of non-pers ...

), vegetable crops (

artichoke The globe artichoke (''Cynara cardunculus'' var. ''scolymus'' ),Rottenberg, A., and D. Zohary, 1996: "The wild ancestry of the cultivated artichoke." Genet. Res. Crop Evol. 43, 53–58. also known by the names French artichoke and green articho ...

s), dairy farming and

turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

-breeding. The kibbutz also has an air-conditioner factory and runs a guesthouse.

Historic images

File:The four kibbutzes of the Gush Etzion Bloc (Kfar Etzion, Ein Zurim, Massuot Yitzhak, Revadim) overlaid on the 1943 Survey of Palestine map of Beit Fajjar.jpg, The four kibbutzes of the

at the time of the 1948 war (

Kfar Etzion Kfar Etzion ( he, כְּפַר עֶצְיוֹן, ''lit.'' Etzion Village) is an Israeli settlement in the West Bank, organized as a religious kibbutz located in the Judean Hills between Jerusalem and Hebron in the southern West Bank, established ...

, Ein Zurim,

Massuot Yitzhak Masu'ot Yitzhak ( he, מְשּׂוּאוֹת יִצְחָק, ''lit.'' Yitzhak's Beacons) is a moshav shitufi in southern Israel. Located near Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Shafir Regional Council. The original kibbutz in Gush Etzio ...

Revadim Revadim ( he, רְבָדִים, ''lit.'' terraces) is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located in the southern Shephelah (Judean foothills) region, it falls under the jurisdiction of Yoav Regional Council. In it had a population of . History Reva ...

) overlaid on a 1943

Survey of Palestine The Survey of Palestine was the government department responsible for the survey and mapping of Palestine during the British mandate period. The survey department was established in 1920 in Jaffa, and moved to the outskirts of Tel Aviv in 19 ...

map File:עין צורים - מראה כללי-JNF026903.jpeg, Ein Tzurim 1947 File:Ein Tzurim 1947.jpg, Kibbutz Ein Tzurim, 1947 File:עין צורים - "בני עקיבא" - ביום העליה לבני-עקיבא (אבו-זייד) בהרי חברון - הקמת המחנה.-JNF001825.jpeg, Ein Tzurim under construction October 1946 File:עין צורים - "בני עקיבא" - חגיגת העליה לבני-עקיבא (אבו-זייד) בהרי חברון .-JNF001831.jpeg, Ein Tzurim Aliyah celebrations October 1946

References

External links

Information about the original Kibbutz Ein Tzurim
Etzion Bloc
Yaakov Herzog Center for Jewish Studies
{{Shafir Regional Council Kibbutzim Religious Kibbutz Movement Populated places established in 1946 Populated places established in 1949 Jewish villages depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War Jewish villages in Mandatory Palestine Populated places in Southern District (Israel) 1946 establishments in Mandatory Palestine 1949 establishments in Israel