Ein Tsurim Colony

Ein Tsurim is a religious kibbutz in the southern occupied Palestinian territories. It is located south of Kiryat Malakhi and is a member of the Religious Kibbutz Movement.

The kibbutz was established on October 23, 1946, as a new settlement in Gush Etzion (east of the current location). Its founders belonged to the fifth group of Bnei Akiva, which was formed in Tirat Tzvi. By 1947, the population of the kibbutz had reached 80 settlers. However, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, it was destroyed by the Jordanian army along with all other settlements in Gush Etzion. The men who remained to fight were captured as prisoners of war and transferred to a POW camp in Mafraq.

With the renewal of Zionist settlement in Gush Etzion after the Six-Day War, a new kibbutz called Rosh Tsurim was established on the original site of Ein Tsurim. In 1949, the settlers who left Ein Tsurim founded a new kibbutz near the existing Trazegil, Shahir, and Sirkan Shapir, naming it “Ein Tsurim” as a symbol of continuity. It was established on land belonging to the depopulated Palestinian village of Al-Sawafir al-Sharqiyya.

In the 1980s, two major educational centers were built in the kibbutz area: the Yeshiva Kibbutz Hadati school and the Yaakov Herzog Center for Jewish Studies. However, in 2008, the religious school was closed due to insufficient enrollment. On Yom Kippur, former students return to pray together.

After the 2005 disengagement from Gaza, some settlers from Gush Katif moved to a trailer park near the kibbutz, and plans were made for permanent housing. In 2022, the number of settlers in Ein Tsurim was approximately 879.

Sources:
Due to the scarcity of Arabic sources, Hebrew sources were used: the settlement’s official Hebrew website and the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.
The village of Al-Sawafir al-Sharqiyya from the Palestine Remembered website.