The village was founded in 1949 by
immigrants from
Transylvania on land that had belonged to the Arab village of
Samakh, which was depopulated in 1948. Notable residents include
Ami Ayalon, who grew up in the kibbutz. Due to the fact it was situated in the
Israel–Syria demilitarised zone under the
1949 Armistice Agreements, Ma'agan was claimed by Syria as its territory during negotiations for a peace agreement in the 1990s. The Israeli government rejected the claims, as it would have led to Syria having territory west of the 1923 border between
Mandatory Palestine and the
French Mandate of Syria. ==References==