Merkaz Shapira

Merkaz Shapira (Hebrew: מֶרְכַּז שַׁפִּירָא) (lit: Shapira Center) is a religious village in the Southern District of Israel. Located in the southern Shephelah between Kiryat Malakhi and Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Shafir Regional Council. In 2021 it had a population of 2,589.[1]

Merkaz Shapira
מֶרְכַּז שַׁפִּירָא‎
مركز شفيرا
Etymology: Shapira Center
Merkaz Shapira is located in Ashkelon region of Israel
Merkaz Shapira
Merkaz Shapira
Coordinates: 31°41′48″N 34°42′24″E
CountryIsrael
DistrictSouthern
CouncilShafir
Founded1948
Population
 (2021)[1]
2,589

History
Further information: Al-Sawafir al-Gharbiyya

The village was founded in the beginning of the 1950s as the Shafir Regional Center, a group of regional educational facilities on land belonging to the depopulated Palestinian village of Al-Sawafir al-Gharbiyya.[2][3] In 1958, it was merged with the farm Dganim, which was abandoned due to failure. In October 1957, The name was changed to Merkaz Shapira in honor of Knesset member Haim-Moshe Shapira, who was wounded in a grenade attack,[4] but due to legal problems, it was only changed officially in 1970.[5]

Merkaz Shapira contains the Or Etzion yeshiva which consists of both a high school and post-high school religious learning institutions (on its eastern end) and an elementary and middle school for itself and nearby villages (Azrikam, Ein Tzurim, Masu'ot Yitzhak, Shafir, Shtulim and Zerahia). The offices of the Shafir Regional Council are also located within the village. Merkaz Shapira has five synagogues - Ohel Yitzhak, The Jerusalemite Synagogue, The Moroccan Synagogue, the Ashkenazi Ashmoret Avraham and the Yemenite Ahuzat Shalom.

Notable residents

References
  1. "Regional Statistics". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 22 February 2023.
  2. Khalidi, Walid (1992), All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies, p. 133, ISBN 0-88728-224-5
  3. Morris, 2004, pp. 257, 306
  4. When Minister Shapiro Was Wounded in the Knesset
  5. Merkaz Shapira Homee.co.il (in Hebrew)
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