Homesh
HomeshIsrael news photo: Flash 90

The families that belong to the Homesh and Sanur nucleus group (gar'in) ascended the hilltops of Samaria to the site of their former homes, for the annual Purim Megilla reading there. Homesh and Sanur were destroyed in the ill-fated 2005 Disengagement, along with two other Samaria communities and the communities of Gush Katif in Gaza.

The unilateral retreat was supposed to bring peace in its wake but brought Hamas into Gaza instead.

This is the seventh year in which the nucleus group families attend the Megilla reading at the site of the razed communities. About 50 men, women and children took part in the Megilla reading and the dancing that followed it.

Rabbi Elishema Cohen, the Dean of Homesh Yeshiva, said during the festivities, "In Homesh, we try to learn from Mordechai the Jew, who used to pace in front of the King's palace every day. We. Too. Try to be steadfast every single day and expect every day that the destruction of Homesh, Sanur, Ganim, Kadim and the communities of Kush Katif will be undone and turn into “and make them happy in a complete building” [words from a 'piyyut' liturgical poem by Rabbi Moshe Kalonimus.]