Merkaz Shapira

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Merkaz Shapira (Hebrew: מֶרְכַּז שַׁפִּירָא), also Shapira Center, is a religious village in the South District of Israel. Located in the southern Shephelah between Kiryat Malakhi and Ashkelon, it falls under the jurisdiction of Shafir Regional Council. In 2007 it had a population of 3,000, although more than half of them reside in public facilities.

The village was founded in the beginning of the 1950s as the Shafir Regional Center, a group of regional educational facilities. In 1958, it was merged with the farm Dganim, which was abandoned due to failure. The name was changed in October 1957 to Merkaz Shapira, after the wounded Knesset member Moshe Shapira, but due to legal problems, it was only changed officially in 1970.

Merkaz Shapira contains the Or Etzion yeshiva (on its eastern end) and an elementary and middle school for itself and nearby villages (Azrikam, Ein Tzurim, Masu'ot Yitzhak, Shafir, Shtulim and Zerahia). The offices of the Shafir Regional Council are also located within the village. Merkaz Shapira has five synagogues - Ohel Yitzhak, The Jerusalemite Synagogue, The Moroccan Synagogue, the Ashkenazi Ashmoret Avraham and the Yemenite Ahuzat Shalom.