Tel Yosef had a population of 112 Jews. The community was targeted during the 1929 Palestine Riots in August of that year, and destroyed by fire.

At the time of the 1931 census, Tel Yosef had 72 occupied houses and a population of 261, all Jews. At its height, the kibbutz had 600 members. In the early 1950s, an ideological dispute headed by Yitzhak Tabenkin led to a split in which 250 members joined