Ein Tzurim

{{Short description|Kibbutz in southern Israel}}

{{Infobox Kibbutz

| name = Ein Tzurim

| hebname = עֵין צוּרִים

|arname=عين تسوريم

| image = File:Entrance to Kibbutz Ein Tzurim.JPG

| imgsize = 250px

| caption = Ein Tzurim

| foundation = {{nowrap|23 October 1946 (in Gush Etzion)}}
1949 (current location)

| founded_by = Bnei Akiva members

| country = {{ISR}}

| district = south

| council = Shafir

| affiliation = {{nowrap|Religious Kibbutz Movement}}

| popyear = {{Israel populations|Year}}

| population = {{Israel populations|En Zurim}}

| population_footnotes={{Israel populations|reference}}

| pushpin_map=Israel ashkelon#Israel |pushpin_mapsize=250

| coordinates = {{coord|31|41|41|N|34|43|7|E|display=inline,title}}

| website =

}}

Ein Tzurim ({{langx|he|עֵין צוּרִים}}, lit. Rock Spring) is a religious kibbutz in southern Israel. Located south of Kiryat Malakhi, it falls under the jurisdiction of Shafir Regional Council and is a member of the Religious Kibbutz Movement. In {{Israel populations|Year}} it had a population of {{Israel populations|En Zurim}}.{{Israel populations|reference}}

History

=Original kibbutz=

The kibbutz was founded on 23 October 1946 as a new settlement in Gush Etzion (east of the present-day location). Its founders were Palestine-born members of the fifth gar'in of Bnei Akiva that had formed in Tirat Zvi.{{cite book | title=Jewish Villages in Israel | author=Jewish National Fund | author-link=Jewish National Fund | year=1949 | publisher=Hamadpis Liphshitz Press | location=Jerusalem | pages=39}}

By 1947 the kibbutz had a population of 80. However, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, it was destroyed by the Jordanian army 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, a new kibbutz called Rosh Tzurim was founded on the original location of Ein Tzurim.

=Relocation=

File:Ein Tzurim.jpg

In 1949 the people who left Ein Tzurim founded a new kibbutz in south-central Israel near the existing villages of Zerahia, Shafir and Merkaz Shapira, and they named it "Ein Tzurim" as a symbol of continuity.{{citation needed|date=November 2013}} It was founded on land belonging to the depopulated Palestinian village of al-Sawafir al-Sharqiyya.{{cite book|title=All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_By7AAAAIAAJ |first1=Walid|last1=Khalidi|author-link=Walid Khalidi|year=1992|publisher=Institute for Palestine Studies|ISBN=0-88728-224-5|page=135}}

In the 1980s two major educational centers were built in the area of the kibbutz; Yeshivat HaKibbutz HaDati and the Yaakov Herzog Center for the Study of Judaism. However, in 2008 the yeshiva closed due to insufficient enrollment.[http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3604643,00.html Swan song for kibbutz yeshiva] Ynetnews, 3 October 2008 Every Yom Kippur former students return to pray together.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

After the Gaza disengagement in 2005, some evacuees from Gush Katif moved into a trailer park near the kibbutz and plans were drawn up for permanent housing.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}

Economy

The economy is based on fruit orchards (lemon and persimmon), vegetable crops (artichokes), dairy farming and turkey-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 Gush Etzion at the time of the 1948 war (Kfar Etzion, Ein Zurim, Massuot Yitzhak, Revadim) overlaid on a 1943 Survey of Palestine 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

{{Reflist}}

Further reading

  • Yossi Katz, Between Jerusalem and Hebron: Jewish Settlement in the Pre-State Period