Bat Ayin

Bat Ayin is a Yeshuv (a settled community) set beautifully on a mountain top in Gush Etzion. It is one of the few communities in the area not to have a fence around it. The community is tight nit, primarily religious (Chassidic Jews), and with a strong emphasis on family and values. There is a 2 year waiting list to join the community, and an intensive screening process. Members of the community are expected to conform to certain standards, religious, moral, and other, including the absence of Television. It is a very Zionistic community, with the majority of its members living an agricultural lifestyle, mostly in organic farming, shepherding, weaving, carpentry and beekeeping. There is also a strong focus on community and the environment. It is not uncommen to hear people refer to Bat Ayin as a place full of Orthodox Jewish Hippies, with ties to Shlomo Carlbach though this is perhaps more of a overgeneralization. The community is unfortunately best known because of the "Bat Ayin Gang" a group of four individuals who gained a lot of media attention for allegedly plotting to detonate a bomb outside an Arab Girls school, the case is ongoing. The members of the community see the entire incident as unfortunate and wish that people wouldn't associate the entire community with violence, as in reality it is a community that resents the need of its members to carry arms, and awaits the day when peace will return to the land.