Nurit

Nurit sits on Mount Gilboa, one of five settlements established on the mountain itself rather than at its western, northern, or eastern foothills.[2] Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics assigns it locality code 833 and lists its average elevation at 126 meters.[1] The settlement is governed by the Gilboa Regional Council and is formally classified as a community locality.[1]

Entry to Nurit is subject to an admissions committee process. An Israeli government document listing localities in the Galilee and Negev that require such committees includes Nurit and identifies its settlement association as Mityashvei Nurit — Rural Agricultural Community Cooperative Association Ltd., association number 570042895.[3]

Nurit was established in 1950 as a moshav.[2] In the years that followed, it was repurposed as a Gadna training camp and nature study center — a significant shift from its original agricultural character.[2]

Gadna, the Israeli government youth movement, was founded in 1948 as the successor to Hagam (established in 1939) and Alummim, an organization for youth aged 14 to 18.[4] Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion defined Gadna's purpose in 1949 as "training for peace and not for war."[4] Its program encompassed Israeli geography and topography, physical fitness, marksmanship, scouting, field exercises, and the cultivation of comradeship, teamwork, and mutual aid.[4] The Gadna Command operated within the framework of the Israel Defense Forces and the Ministry of Defense, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Culture.[4]

The Nurit facility followed the establishment of a Gadna training farm at Be'er Orah in the Negev in 1951; related facilities were also established at Sedeh Boker and Ketzi'ot in the Negev.[4]

Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics recorded Nurit's 2022 population as 254: 250 were classified as "Jews and others," including 241 Jews, and 4 as Arabs.[1] These figures document Nurit's current scale as a small community locality.

Tuvia Biton, born in Morocco in 1943, immigrated to Israel with his family during the 1950s and grew up in the moshav of Nurit on Mount Gilboa, where he attended local educational institutions.[5] He went on to serve as a Golani reconnaissance soldier and later helped establish both the city of Carmiel and the Golan Heights settlement of Eli-Ad.[5]

During the October 1973 Yom Kippur War, Biton was seriously wounded on reserve duty after being struck by an armored personnel carrier, resulting in the amputation of both legs.[5] His official Yizkor biography records that despite this injury he continued traveling, studying, working, and engaging with the world — described in the Hebrew original as refusing to allow disability to define or limit him — until his death in 2005.[5]