The beginning of the Jewish settlement in Ben Shemen was in 1906, when the "Atid" factory for oil was founded. Israel Belkind, a Bilu member, founded at the same year an agricultural school, intended to educate orphans of the riots in Russia. The school closed after a year. In 1910 a farm was placed instead. In 1922 a labors' moshav was founded in Ben Shemen and five years afterwards the youth village was founded.