The kibbutz was founded on 2 February 1949 by a gar'in of Holocaust survivors from Hungary and Poland who organized at the end of World War II and fought in the 1948 Arab–Israeli war. At first the members settled on the ruins of the Arab village al-Lajjun and several years later, relocated to a nearby hill. In 1952 a gar'in of migrants from Lebanon and Mexico joined the kibbutz. In 1959, another gar'in of migrants from Argentina and in the next years more gar'ins joined and youth organizations volunteered in the kibbutz but the population did not grow as members left the kibbutz.