A Visit With Shmuel: Ofra

This month, I visited the community of Ofra, one of the original Jewish communities in Samaria. In 1975, a group of idealistic pioneers, eager to settle in Samaria but consistently thwarted by the Israeli Government’s then anti-settlement policy, heard that an IDF base was looking for civilian workers to construct a fence. They saw an opportunity and applied for the jobs. Most of the young men had never constructed a fence or anything else for that matter . But that was the beginning of Ofra. What began as a workers camp grew into the first modern Jewish community north of Jerusalem. And it is home to settlement movement leaders as well as the amazing Heart of Benjamin. Please join me for my visit to this wonderful community in Samaria!