Yad Ḥannah

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YAD ḤANNAH

YAD ḤANNAH (Heb. יַד חַנָּה), two kibbutzim in central Israel near Tūl Karm, founded as a single settlement in 1950 by Ha-Kibbutz ha-Me'uḥad. The members, immigrants from Hungary and Israel-born youth, split in 1954 into two parts. One, affiliated with the Israel Communist Party, maintains the existing village and constitutes the only communist-affiliated settlement in the country. The group remaining with Ha-Kibbutz ha-Me'uḥad built Yad Ḥannah Bet in the vicinity. Both settlements were exposed border outposts until the Six-Day *War (1967). Both kibbutzim had economies based on irrigated field and fodder crops, citrus groves, flower cultivation, and other branches. In the mid-1990s, the kibbutz affiliated with the Communists had 76 inhabitants, while the kibbutz belonging to Ha-Kibbutz ha-Me'uhad had 140. In 2002 the combined population was 117. Subsequently the kibbutz filed a request to change its status to a moshav in order to absorb new members and ensure the future of the settlement. The name commemorates Hannah *Szenes.

[Efram Orni /

Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]