Just three years ago, another failing kibbutz - Shomeriya, named for the secular HaShomer HaTza'ir movement - was replaced by a religious group of expellees from Atzmonah.
The last families of failing Kibbutz Retamim have moved to nearby Kibbutz Revivim, 30 religious families are taking their place, and Retamim is now a religious community.

Shmuel Rifman, head of the Ramat HaNegev Regional Council and a member of the Labor Party, congratulated all those involved in the process, saying today is a “holiday and historic milestone in the strengthening of the settlement enterprise” in the Negev.

Both Revivim and Retamim are located some 20 kilometers south of Be’er Sheva in the relatively barren Negev desert. Revivim was one of three settlements established during World War II, in response to a British White Paper decree restricting Zionist purchase of land in the Land of Israel. The other two were Gvulot, which is now Kibbutz Hatzor, and Beit Eshel, just south of Be’er Sheva, which was destroyed by Arab armies during the War of Independence.

Retamim was founded in 1983 as an agricultural kibbutz of the secular Kibbutz Movement. The members had trouble forming a stable community, and Retamim merged with Revivim in 1994. 

“The fact that the regional council was able to renew settlement in a failing community,” Rifman said with satisfaction, “is a great saving for the country and the correct usage of existing infrastructures.”

Many bodies were involved in the process of merging the two kibbutzim and resettling Retamim with a new population, including the Regional Council, the Agricultural Ministry, the Israel Lands Authority, the Cooperative Associations Registrar, and the Prime Minister’s Office.

A group called Ohr National Missions organized the core group of pioneering religious families that is now moving into Retamim. Ohr [Light] was founded several years ago by a group of young idealists from central Israel, with the goal of promoting Jewish settlement and development in the peripheral areas of the Land of Israel, particularly in the Negev and the Galilee. The families, some of whom originate in Judea and Samaria, jelled into a cohesive settlement group over the past three years in nearby Telalim.

The goal is to build Retamim into one of the largest communities in the northern Negev, with 300 families. The Regional Council has invested in a two-million shekel development project there, and the Housing Ministry is beginning work on a new residential project.

Just three years ago, another failing kibbutz - Shomeriya, named for the secular HaShomer HaTza'ir (Young Guard) movement - was replaced by a religious group of expellees from the Gush Katif town of Atzmonah.