The modern kibbutz was founded in January 1949 by a gar'in of North American Hashomer Hatzair members on the land of the depopulated Palestinian village of Sa'sa'.

On the grounds of the kibbutz is the alleged tomb of Levi ben Sisi, who is usually believed to have died in far-away Babylonia during the first half of the third century.

[6] In 1950, the American correspondent Kenneth W. Bilby started his book "New Star in The Near East" - depicting the 1948 war and its aftermath - with an eyewitness account of Sassa: "Face Lifting".

By November 1949, 120 young American-born Jews had supplanted them, and the old village roosting on a Galilean hilltop had begun to acquire a Western flavor.

Prefabricated barracks with beaverboard interiors, fresh-painted American tractors, and an experimental windmill which resembled a radar antenna provided more accouterments of progress.