Bitan Aharon ( he, בִּיתַן אַהֲרֹן, lit. ''Aharon's Pavilion'') is a

moshav A moshav ( he, מוֹשָׁב, plural ', lit. ''settlement, village'') is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 ...

in central

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Located in the

Sharon plain The Sharon plain ( ''HaSharon Arabic: سهل شارون Sahel Sharon'') is the central section of the Israeli coastal plain. The plain lies between the Mediterranean Sea to the west and the Samarian Hills, to the east. It stretches from Nahal ...

between

Hadera Hadera ( he, חֲדֵרָה ) is a city located in the Haifa District of Israel, in the northern Sharon region, approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) from the major cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa. The city is located along 7 km (5&nb ...

and

Netanya Netanya (also known as Natanya, he, נְתַנְיָה) is a city in the Northern Central District of Israel, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between Poleg stream and Wingate ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Hefer Valley Regional Council The Hefer Valley Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית עמק חפר, ''Mo'atza Azorit Emek Hefer'') is a regional council in the Hefer Valley region of the Sharon plain in central Israel. It is named after an administrative district in ...

. In it had a population of .

History

The moshav was founded in 1936. During its first years the members of the moshav hired workers to plant orange groves while its members lived in the cities. A decade later the village became more developed with new settlers joining. In 1947 it had a population of 100. The village was named after Aharon (Archibald Jacob, "Archie") Freiman, a leader of the

World Zionist Organization The World Zionist Organization ( he, הַהִסְתַּדְּרוּת הַצִּיּוֹנִית הָעוֹלָמִית; ''HaHistadrut HaTzionit Ha'Olamit''), or WZO, is a non-governmental organization that promotes Zionism. It was founded as the ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

and an advisor to

Yehoshua Hankin Yehoshua Hankin ( he, יהושע חנקין, 1864 – 11 November 1945) was a Zionist activist who was responsible for most of the major land purchases of the Zionist Organization in Ottoman Palestine and Mandatory Palestine – in particular fo ...

. The two were instrumental in raising the funds to purchase Emek Hefer (the Hefer valley) in the 1920s and to make it available for Jewish settlement.

Bitan Aharon nature reserve

A 46-dunam nature reserve was declared in 1968, just east of the moshav. The reserve covers part of the second (middle)

Kurkar Kurkar ( ar, كركار / he, כורכר) is the term used in Palestinian Arabic and modern Hebrew for the rock type of which lithified sea sand dunes consist. The equivalent term used in Lebanon is ramleh. haron Horowitz. ''The Quaternary of I ...

ridge that runs on a north-south axis in this part of the Israeli coastal plain, and therefore includes a number of ancient rock-hewn tombs and burial caves. Flora includes ''Ziziphus spina-christi'' and ''Pancratium (plant), Pancratium parviflorum''.

Notable residents

*Hen Lippin (born 1965), basketball player

References

{{Nature reserves of Israel Jewish villages in Mandatory Palestine Moshavim Agricultural Union Populated places established in 1936 Nature reserves in Israel 1936 establishments in Mandatory Palestine Populated places in Central District (Israel)