MA'AS

MA'AS (Heb. מַעַשׂ; "Action" or "Deed"), moshav in central Israel, near Petaḥ Tikvah , affiliated with Tenu'at ha-Moshavim, founded in 1934 in the framework of the Thousand Families Settlement Scheme by veteran agricultural workers. They gradually enlarged their holdings from auxiliary to full-fledged farms while earning their living as hired laborers   in the Petaḥ Tikvah citrus groves (therefore calling their village, until the 1950s, Be-Hadragah, "Gradually"). Citrus groves constituted the prominent farm branch in Ma'as. In 1968 its population was 400. By the mid-1990s it had grown to approximately 645, maintaining its size with 667 inhabitants at the end of 2002. (Efraim Orni)