Makor Chaim’s 320 students as well as the many adults taking part in our various outreach programs have been operating out of  “temporary” shacks. Between the rent we are paying, the energy wasted by our leaky, uninsulated structures, the high price of maintenance, roofs which collapse in the snow and so on – we have no choice but to move. It is with great regret that we leave the wonderful community of Kfar Etzion which has so graciously hosted us for decades, but in the summer of 2023 we will be moving to another historic spot here in Gush Etzion.

Over the years, many attempts were made to locate a suitable spot for a permanent campus – in Kfar Etzion, in Alon Shvut, in Efrat and elsewhere – with no success. Immediately following our tragedy, the government recognized the urgency in building a permanent campus and awarded Makor Chaim 32 dunams (almost 8 acres) of land adjacent to the entrance to Neve Daniel. For a whole year we struggled in court to clear the land of contesting Arab claims and finally in the summer of 2015 the Civil Administration and Planning Authorities issued the final permits. According to their plans, this spot will serve as the beachhead for a whole new expansion, tripling the size of Neve Daniel. It is symbolically situated on the very spot where “Derech HaAvot” – the ancient road travelled by our Patriarchs between Jerusalem and Hebron –  meets today’s Route 60. Indeed, this is the spot where the “Path of the Sons” meets the “Way of our Fathers!”  והשיב לב אבות על בנים – ולב בנים על אבותם!

The new campus will provide us with the sorely needed basis to expand our institutions, programs and influence on Israeli society. At Makor Chaim, when we say “Choose Life” is our motto, we are talking about creating a center which will promote Jewish life filled with meaning and commitment. This new campus will be our answer to terror and the most suitable way to commemorate the three young boys and the awesome effect they had on the Jewish world at large.