Tzora () is a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

in central

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Located about 20 km from

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, near the city of

Beit Shemesh Beit Shemesh () is a city council (Israel), city located approximately west of Jerusalem in Israel's Jerusalem District. A center of Haredi Judaism and Modern Orthodoxy, Beit Shemesh has a population of 170,683 as of 2024. The city is named afte ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Mateh Yehuda Regional Council Mateh Yehuda Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Mateh Yehuda'', ) is a Regional council (Israel), regional council in the Jerusalem District of Israel. In 2024 it was home to 51,125 people. The name of the regional council stems from the fact t ...

. In it had a population of . ZARAA1

Etymology

The kibbutz is named for the biblical village of Tzora, which may have been a Canaanite town. The name was taken from the

Biblical The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) biblical languages ...

Book of Judges The Book of Judges is the seventh book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. In the narrative of the Hebrew Bible, it covers the time between the conquest described in the Book of Joshua and the establishment of a kingdom in the ...

(13:25): "And the spirit of the Lord began to move him (

Samson SAMSON (Software for Adaptive Modeling and Simulation Of Nanosystems) is a computer software platform for molecular design being developed bOneAngstromand previously by the NANO-D group at the French Institute for Research in Computer Science an ...

) at times in the camp of Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol." The kibbutz's name is also similar to, and is related to that of the nearby and depopulated Palestinian village of Sar'a.

History

Biblical era

Tzora is located about 2 km south-west of Tel Tzora, which is where the Palestinian village of Sar'a stood until it was depopulated during the 1948 war. Tel Tzora is the likely location of the biblical village of Zorah.

Second Temple era

A ritual bath dating back to the

Second Temple Period The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years (516 BCE – 70 CE) during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstructio ...

was discovered near Tzora kibbutz during an archaeological excavation conducted by the

Israel Antiquities Authority The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, ; , before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of Antiquities. The IAA regulates excavation and conservatio ...

in 2011.

Modern era

The kibbutz was founded in December 1948 by former

Palmach The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Phalanges/Companies") was the elite combined strike forces and sayeret unit of the Haganah, the paramilitary organization of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of th ...

members. It is located on the land of the depopulated

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

village of

Dayr Aban Dayr Aban (also spelled Deir Aban; ) was a Palestinian people, Palestinian Arab village in the Jerusalem Subdistrict, Mandatory Palestine, Jerusalem Subdistrict, located on the lower slope of a high ridge that formed the western slope of a mount ...

. In the 1980s a ham radio club operated under the call 4Z4YJ. In the early 2000s, Tzora underwent a privatization of its communal living structure, with a community tax levied on income and the residual retained as income by members. In April 2008, the kibbutz was fully privatized.

Economy

One of the main branches of the kibbutz economy was Tzora Furniture Ltd., which began in 1957 as a metal factory. At first, the company produced bicycles, but in 1974 it began to manufacture office chairs, before moving on to a full range of office furniture. However, the factory burned down in July 2007. In 1993, Tzora opened the first kibbutz winery, Tzora Vineyards, which produces 80,000 bottles of wine a year, of which 15,000 are exported. Tzora is also home to the

Teperberg Winery Teperberg 1870 Winery () is a winery near kibbutz Tzora in the foothills of the Judean hills, Israel. Founded in 1870 in Jerusalem Sanjak, Ottoman Palestine, it is Israel's oldest winery, as well as its fourth largest. History Originally called Efr ...

. Tzora operates a dairy in partnership with Tzova and Netiv HaLamed-Heh. Tzora Active Systems produce advanced lightweight wheelchairs.

Notable people

* Moshe Harif *

Yair Tzaban Yair Tzaban (; born 23 August 1930) is an Israeli politician, academic and social activist. Biography Tzaban was born in Jerusalem in 1930. During the 1948 Palestine War he fought in the Palmach. He was among the founders of Kibbutz Tzora, near ...

* Eliezer Schweid

Gallery

File:Zor'a ii.jpg, View of fledgling kibbutz from the road to Jerusalem File:Zor'a iii.jpg, Construction of first cabins, 1948 File:Zor'a iv.jpg, First buildings, 1948 File:Zor'a i.jpg, Kibbutz goat herd in its early days File:111891 kibbutz tsora general appearance PikiWiki Israel.jpg, Tzora 1949

References

External links

Official website (Hebrew)
* Wikipedia (Hebrew) {{Authority control Ancient Jewish settlements of Judaea Kibbutzim Kibbutz Movement Populated places established in 1948 Populated places in Jerusalem District 1948 establishments in Israel Zorah