Noga, Israel

Noga belongs to the Lachish region and is administratively part of the Southern District.[3] Its early history is connected with the establishment of moshavim in Lachish and with assistance to new immigrants, including educational work undertaken by Rivka Guber.[2]

In Israel’s peripherality index based on 2015 data, Noga received a score of 0.002.[3] This was the score closest to zero, the index’s midpoint between what was considered peripheral and central.[3]

Published sources differ on Noga’s founding year: an Encyclopedia.com settlement table lists 1955, while a Ynet account gives 1956.[1][4] It belonged to the early settlement effort in Lachish, a region whose new communities brought together immigrants from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Iraq, Iran and Hungary, alongside people born in Israel.[4] These origins describe the regional settlement population rather than the particular composition of Noga’s founders.[4]

The wider Lachish settlement program envisaged more than 20 settlement points, together with rural and urban centers, and was implemented principally between 1955 and 1961.[5] Moshav Otzem was the first settlement established under that plan.[5] A policy known as “from the ship to the village” moved new immigrants directly into newly established communities; many arrivals lacked agricultural knowledge or preparation, while settlements in the south often lacked roads, electricity or other infrastructure.[5]

Rivka and Mordecai Guber volunteered to move to Hevel Lachish in 1955, donated their property at Kefar Warburg to the state’s Defense Fund, and went to live at Nogah.[2] Rivka organized and taught classes for children of the moshav and new immigrants, while Mordecai helped newcomers take their first steps in the country.[2] Noga’s name, together with those of nearby Shahar and Zohar, was associated with the hope embodied in the renewal of Zionist settlement.[4]

During the October 2023 war, a Noga resident visiting New Jersey recalled her connections to the Gaza-border area through family, school friends and time spent in Sderot.[6] In her first-person account, she said that her parents, siblings and grandmother had spent two days in the family bomb shelter.[6] Chief Superintendent Avi Amar, who was killed fighting Hamas on October 7, 2023, was buried in Moshav Noga on October 15.[7]

A settlement table lists Noga with 332 inhabitants.[1] In its early years, the moshav included immigrant residents whom Rivka and Mordecai Guber assisted through children’s classes and practical help with settling into the country.[2]