"Nature and History Meet in the Jerusalem Mountains" Zova by iblatt

This kibbutz has more than one name: The official name is Tzova; it is more often called Tzuba, both by its own members and by outsiders; and the full name is Palmach-Tzuba. It is located in the Jerusalem Mountains, 13km west of Jerusalem, in beautiful surroundings with pine tree forests around it

The kibbutz was founded in October 1948, during the War of Independence, by a group of Palmach members (a voluntary military organization which preceded the Israel Defense Force), Holocaust survivors and Jewish new immigrants from Turkey.
Other groups and individuals joined the kibbutz later on.

Tzuba: The tractor, the olive tree and the winery

It was not easy to cultivate the land in these rocky hills; the kibbutz has some apple orchards, but these give way today to vineyards which make the best of this soil and the temperate mountain climate. There is a local winery producing Tzuba wines. At the kibbutz entrance stands one of the older tractors, and on top of it an olive tree grows on a bed of gravel. The inscription says: "Sixty Years of Montain Settlement", recalling the hardships faced by the settlers in the early years. In the background behind it you can see the modern winery. This, in a nutshell, is the story of the progress of the kibbutz from 1948 to today.
Main sources of income nowadays are a factory for fortified glass windows and tourism. There is also an Ulpan (language school for Hebrew) for tourists and for new immigrants.

View of kibbutz Tzuba

The kibbutz has a hotel and several tourist attractions, some relating to the ancient past, and some to modern life. Tzuba has a long history from Biblical times (you can visit some tombs from the First Temple era!), through the Roman period (a water conduit from King Herod's times) to the Crusader period (12th century): The Crusaders built the castle of Belmont on the hill near Tzuba, which stood almost intact until the 19th century.

I spent a weekend in Tzuba in March 2011, and greatly enjoyed the hospitality, the nature walks and history walks in the area. You can read about all of these in my tips.