Ruhama was first established in 1911, on land purchased in the same year by the "Remnant of Israel" () company, set up by Russian Jews in Moscow, under the leadership of Simon Velikovsky, the father of Immanuel Velikovsky,[REF] to invest money in Jewish agricultural settlements in the Land of Israel.
Two subsequent attempts to re-establish the settlement during the period of the British Mandate were curtailed by the Arab riots in 1929 and 1936.