Masu'ot Yitzhak
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Masuot Yitzhak (Hebrew: משואות יצחק) is a moshav in the South District of Israel, near Ashkelon. It belongs to the Shafir Regional Council. It was originally founded as a kibbutz in Gush Etzion, but the kibbutz was destroyed in the Israeli War of Independence, and the inhabitants relocated.
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[edit] Masuot Yitzhak in Gush Etzion
Masuot Yitzhak was founded as a kibbutz in 1945 in Gush Etzion between Jerusalem and Hebron. The settlers were young people, about 20 years old, who immigrated to Israel from Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Germany before World War II. Their goal was to establish a settlement as a memorial to the Jews who died in the Holocaust, and to light fires to symbolize the hope that the surviving Jews would arrive from exile to join them.
Masuot Yitzhak was named after Rabbi Isaac Herzog, who was the Chief Rabbi of Israel, on the occasion of his 50th birthday, to honor his work on behalf of Jews in Israel and abroad.
The settlers of Masuot Yitzhak successfully met the challenges of living in the Judean Hills. They built houses and planted forests and orchards. In 1948, the Israeli War of Independence ruined their plans.
Gush Etzion was captured by the Arab Legion. Except for the combatants of Kfar Etzion who were massacred after they surrendered, all other inhabitants of Gush Etzion, including those from Masuot Yitzhak, were taken as prisoners of war into Jordan. They remained there for 9 months.
[edit] Masuot Yitzhak near Shafir
When the members of Masuot Yitzhak were freed in 1949, they established a new settlement near Shafir. The Philistines inhabited this area in Biblical times. Micah prophesied about Shafir in this area (Micah 1:11). In the Israeli War of Independence, this region served as a base for the southern front of the Israeli army. In 1952 the settlement became a moshav, associated with the moshavim of Hapoel Hamizrachi.
[edit] Inhabitants
As of 2007, Masuot Yitzhak is home to 253 full members, 200 children under age 18, about 50 people who are away learning in the army, and about 100 other residents. The total population is 604.
[edit] Economy
Residents earn their livelihood by agriculture and industry. Industry began in 1985 when melons and an orchard were removed from the agriculture sector.
