How Gush Etzion got its name

“Jonathan Feldstein did an excellent job of the overall history of Gush Etzion [Heritage, Jan. 21 issue ‘The rise and fall and rise again of Gush Etzion’],” a Heritage reader wrote. He continued, “There’s just one thing I thought might be interesting and that is how it got the name Gush Etzion.”

The reader explained that Gush means “block” so it’s the “block of Etzion.” Where did the word “Etzion” come from?

The reader went on to explain it comes from Shmuel Yosef Holtzman (or Holzman). Holtzman was a Jewish businessman of German extraction, and in 1932 he provided financial backing for the se...