Ma'ale HaHamisha

The kibbutz was founded by members of the Gordonia youth movement on 19 July 1938 as one of 57 tower and stockade settlements founded almost overnight between 1936 and 1939 in order to establish a permanent Jewish presence in Palestine under the threat of attacks during the Arab revolt. It was named after five men ambushed and killed by Arab gunmen nearby. Ma'ale HaHamisha took in refugees from Gush Etzion in 1949.[2]

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  Ma'ale HaHamisha under construction 1938
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  Ma'ale HaHamisha July 1938
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  Ma'ale HaHamisha October 1938
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  Ma'ale HaHamisha November 1938
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  Ma’ale HaHamisha 1938
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  Ma'ale HaHamisha July 1939
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  Ma'ale HaHamisha 1941
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  Ma'ale HaHamisha 1945
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  Food warehouse at Ma'ale HaHamisha on fire following Arab Legion shelling from Radar Hill, 1948
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  Peperman building, Ma'ale HaHamisha, after battle with Arab Legion. Originally a sanatorium for workers from Dead Sea Potash became Harel Brigade HQ.
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  1948 damage to the Peperman sanatorium

The kibbutz originally supported itself primarily on agriculture and developed both the Ma'ale HaHamisha cauliflower and peach, as well as gaining income from a hotel. In the early 2000s, the main issue in privatization of the kibbutz was what type of financial and social change could take place. Until then, all sources of income, including German reparations and old age payments, went into the kibbutz kitty, which supplied all necessities, communal and individual. The concept of sliding pay scales for different work — promoted primarily by the younger generation — had to be reconciled with the contributions of the veteran members.

The kibbutz struggled over the fate of community property. Members' apartments might be individually owned, but over the years, as the older generation remained in smaller units, bigger apartments were built for the younger generation and for a new familial sleeping scheme that had abandoned separate children’s houses. Members also had to decide what to do with the hotel and conference center. It took intervention by an outside arbitrator to reconcile the differences.[3] In January 2005 the kibbutz was privatized.

The main part of the kibbutz's economy are the Ma'ale HaHamisha Hotel and the Sakoya Events compound.

• Avigdor Arikha