Youngsters in Moshav Tkuma, the first religious Moshav (cooperative agricultural community) in the Negev, celebrated 77 years since the founding members settled on the original site in Sumra, in the fields surrounding Gaza.
Dozens of men and women, some of them the fourth generation in the moshav, participated in the exciting event led by the rabbi of the religious moshav, Rabbi Shmuel Nehushtan.
The youngsters left the moshav in the dead of night and marched on foot to the old security house in the moshav, which was established many years ago and was used for guarding. This is the only remnant of the original settlement. There, they held a festive morning prayer, like the founders had done back in 1947, and they read the poem "The Eleven Points" by Poucho, which tells the story of the establishment of the moshav by its new residents. "This important event will become a tradition," they claimed.
Moshav Tkuma was founded as part of the establishment of eleven communities that were built in one night at the end of Yom Kippur 1947 in order to expand Jewish settlements in the Negev and include them in the future State of Israel. The founding members were native-born Israelis from religious social groups in Bat Galim, the Palmach in Biriya, and Holocaust survivors from Europe. On the morning after the founding of the moshav, Jewish Agency representatives arrived with a Torah scroll, and everyone celebrated the founding of Tkuma by bringing a Torah scroll into the new synagogue and praying.
Sdot Negev Regional Council head Tamir Idan told Arutz Sheva-Israel National News: "On the occasion of its birthday, I would like to congratulate the dear residents of Tkuma to continue to do good, deepen your roots and continue this important tradition that imparts the values of Zionism and settlement in the Land of Israel to our future generation."