Northern Samaria marked a symbolic milestone on Tuesday when the Samaria Regional Council placed the first kindergarten building in Sa-Nur, only months after settlement returned to the community. The project was carried out with help from the Education Ministry, the council, the local community and private donations, and officials described it as a historic closing of a 21-year circle, exactly since the original kindergarten was shut and evacuated in the 2005 disengagement from northern Samaria.
The new kindergarten is scheduled to open in the coming school year for families already living in Sa-Nur and for those expected to join later. It is also part of a wider plan to establish 18 new communities in northern Samaria under the council’s "Connecting Program," alongside additional educational institutions that are expected to follow.
Families and children from the settlement, together with Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, who was himself expelled from Sa-Nur and later returned to live there, helped place the structure. Dagan recited the blessing "Shehecheyanu" and told the children, "You are making history now. We are bringing back Sa-Nur’s first kindergarten after 21 years... You are part of the correction of the history of the people of Israel." He added that this was "the first kindergarten this year out of many" for the new communities being built in northern Samaria.
Resident Adi Gelbard said she was very excited and looked forward to bringing children to the kindergarten on September 1, and eventually to a daycare as well. Dagan thanked ministers Israel Katz, Bezalel Smotrich and Yoav Kish, along with the Settlement Administration, the Civil Administration, Amana and council staff, saying the effort was driven above all by the pioneering residents of Sa-Nur and the new settlements.
