Founded in 1984, the community Bet Hagai was established as a result of a heartbreaking tragedy. Hanan Krauthammer, Gershon Klein and Yaakov Zimmerman, three students attending the Nir Yeshiva (religious male academy) in Kiryat Arba, were brutally murdered in a terror attack in 1980. Their bereaved friends at the yeshiva were determined to build a new community in their memory. Named as an acronym of each of their three names, Bet Hagai was established in the hills near Hebron as a tribute to their legacy. In 1989 the community expanded its mission by creating a youth village for children from troubled backgrounds, providing them with nurturing homes, spiritual guidance and practical skills through programs in pottery, woodworking, agriculture and farming. The village also operates a sheep farm that helps to educate the youth and to reinforce the People of Israel’s presence in the region through land cultivation.