Ma'yan Barukh

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MA'YAN BARUKH

MA'YAN BARUKH (Heb. מַעְיַן בָּרוּךְ), kibbutz on the Israel-Lebanese border near the Tannur waterfall, affiliated with Iḥud ha-Kevuẓot ve-ha-Kibbutzim. It was founded in 1947 by South African and Rhodesian World War ii veterans, joined by Israel-born youth and immigrants from the United States, Great Britain, and other countries. Its founding at the time was regarded as an act of defiance against the British administration which imposed martial law on Tel Aviv and the Jewish sectors of Jerusalem. In the Israel *War of Independence (1948), the kibbutz resisted strong Syrian contingents who attempted to penetrate into the Ḥuleh Valley, and in the years preceding the *Six-Day War (1967) Ma'yan Barukh was repeatedly shelled by the nearby Syrian positions. Its economy was based on fruit orchards, irrigated field and garden crops, and dairy cattle. The kibbutz maintained a local museum. Its name, "Baruch's Spring," commemorates Baruch (Bernard) Gordon, a South African Zionist. In the mid-1990s, the population was approximately 360, dropping to 305 in 2002. The kibbutz operated a steel factory and ran its dairy farm in partnership with kibbutz *Loḥamei ha-Getta'ot. The kibbutz also operated guest rooms and water recreation facilities at the nearby Jordan River.

[Efram Orni /

Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]