Residents of the Jewish community of Adorayim in the Mount Hebron region of Judea on Tuesday celebrated the official recognition of the former outpost as a town by the Israeli government.
The ceremony, which took place the 58th anniversary of the liberation of the area by the Israel Defense Forces, was held in the presence of Israeli lawmaker Simcha Rothman, who chairs the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, Mount Hebron Regional Council Head Eliram Azulay and the families of Elchanan Kalmanson and Rabbi Michael “Miki” Mark, in whose memory the community was established.
“The village of Adorayim is yet another step forward in the government’s process of normalizing communities” in Judea and Samaria, Rothman declared in his remarks at the ceremony, adding: “One day, Adorayim will be home to hundreds of residents and high-rise buildings.”
“What drives us in the Knesset is ultimately your spirit and dedication, residents of Adorayim,” the coalition lawmaker said as he recited the traditional blessing for re-establishing towns in the Land of Israel.
“Adorayim is not just a strategic point on the map,” said Azulay. “Its residents are a symbol of pioneering, perseverance and the spirit of settlement that drives us—just as envisioned and planned by Elchanan Kalmanson, may God avenge his blood, who was one of the founders.”
Adorayim was first established in the wake of the June 2016 Palestinian terrorist shooting that claimed the life of Mark. The community was led by Kalmanson until he was killed battling Hamas terrorists in Kibbutz Be’eri during the terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border massacre.
In February, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, head of IDF Central Command, signed an order regulating the boundaries of the village, marking the first step toward Adorayim’s further expansion and development.
Now, the Israeli Interior Ministry has issued an official “settlement symbol” for Adorayim, turning it into a legal community for all intents and purposes.
Israel’s Security Cabinet recently approved 22 new Jewish communities across Judea and Samaria, including two in northern Samaria that were uprooted by Israeli forces as part of the 2005 Gaza disengagement.
“This is a dramatic government decision, unprecedented in terms of deepening the Israeli settlement of Judea and Samaria,” Israel Ganz, whose Yesha Council represents the approximately 500,000 Jewish residents of the area, declared in a statement about the approvals on Tuesday.
Some of the approved villages are existing outposts that had thus far been illegal under Israeli law, while others will be newly constructed.
Meanwhile, late last week, Israeli Construction and Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf announced that Jerusalem would allocate 30 million shekels ($8.42 million) to build more than a dozen cities and industrial zones in Samaria in an attempt to bring a million more Jews to the area.
As of Jan. 1, 2025, 529,704 Jews lived in Judea and Samaria, amounting to approximately 5.28% of the Jewish state’s population. Nearly 70% of Israeli citizens want Jerusalem to extend its full legal sovereignty over the disputed territory, according to a poll conducted on Jan. 29.
Fifty-eight percent of Israeli Jews believe that communities in Judea and Samaria contribute to the security of the country, according to a survey the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) published on March 11.