Ayelet HaShahar

The name of the kibbutz, literally "hind of the dawn", is taken from the first line of Psalm 22 in reference to Najmat es-Subh (Arabic: نجمة الصبح, lit. 'star of the dawn'), the original name of the land on which the kibbutz is located.[2] The land was bought by the Jewish Colonization Association in 1892, and first settled by immigrants from Europe in 1915 during the Second Aliyah period. A census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, recorded a population of 78 Jews.[3] During the end of the British mandate, the kibbutz was the staging ground for Palmach operations: Night of the Bridges and the bombing of the Yarmuk Bridge (16–17 June 1946).

After the 1947–1949 Palestine war, Ayelet HaShahar took over the land from the newly depopulated Palestinian village of Yarda.[4]

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  Ayelet HaShahar, 1919
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  Ayelet HaShahar, 1937
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  Ayelet HaShahar, 1939
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  Aiyelet hash Shahar near Kh. Najmat es Subh, 1942
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  Palmach youth group at Ayelet Hashahar, 1946
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  Yiftach 3rd Battalion. Ayelet HaShahar. 1948
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  Collecting stray camels. Ayelet HaShahar. 1948

Ayelet HaShahar is one of the larger fruit producers in Israel. They also raise dairy cattle and poultry, and manage beehives (the kibbutz is a major producer of Israel's honey). There are fish ponds, which take water from canals that drain the nearby Hula Valley swamps.

Tel Hazor, the capital of Canaanite Galilee, lies opposite the kibbutz. The Archaeological Museum of Hatzor is located at the kibbutz. Antiquities from Tel Hazor are displayed, but many of the original artifacts are actually at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

• Tzruya Lahav, songwriter, singer, and novelist
• Avshalom Okashi, artist[5]

• Kibbutz website (in Hebrew)
• What's happening to the kibbutz? article written by Ellis Shuman, June 16, 2004, mentions the vote by members of Kibbutz Ayelet Hashahar to transform their cooperative into a moshav.
• Mevo HaGalil Elementary School