KISSUFIM

KISSUFIM (Heb. כִּסּוּפִים; "Longings"), kibbutz in N.W. Negev, Israel, affiliated to Ha-Kibbutz ha-Me'uḥad, and founded in 1951 by settlers from South America. Later, immigrants from the United States and Canada, together with Israeli-born youth, made up the majority of members. Kissufim's agriculture was based on field crops, citrus groves, avocado plantations, dairy cattle, poultry, and organic farming. It also ran a guest house. Prior to the sinai campaign (1956), and again before the six-day war (1967), Kissufim played an important   security role as an outpost opposite the Gaza Strip. In the mid-1990s the population was approximately 350, declining to 202 in 2002. -WEBSITE: www.kissufim.org.il . (Efraim Orni)