Dafna ( he, דַּפְנָה) is a
kibbutz
A kibbutz ( he, קִבּוּץ / , lit. "gathering, clustering"; plural: kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1909, was Degania. Today, farming h ...
in the
Upper Galilee in northern
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 ...
, 7 km east of
Kiryat Shmona. It was founded on 3 May 1939 as a
Tower and Stockade settlement, and was the first Tower and Stockade-type settlement in the northern
Hula Valley. Dafna,
Beit Hillel
Beit Hillel ( he, בֵּית הִלֵּל) is a moshav in northern Israel. Located on the west bank of the Hasbani River, about 5 kilometres from Kiryat Shmona, its 3,500 dunams fall under the jurisdiction of Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council. As ...
,
She'ar Yashuv
She'ar Yashuv ( he, שְׁאָר יָשׁוּב) is a moshav in northern Israel. Located in the Upper Galilee in the northeastern Hula Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council. In it had a population of .
The ...
, and
Dan
Dan or DAN may refer to:
People
* Dan (name), including a list of people with the name
** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark
* Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa
**Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoir ...
were known as "the
Ussishkin
Menachem Ussishkin (russian: Авраам Менахем Мендл Усышкин ''Avraham Menachem Mendel Ussishkin'', he, מנחם אוסישקין) (August 14, 1863 – October 2, 1941) was a Russian-born Zionist leader and head of the J ...
Fortresses" – Ussishkin Fortress
Alef
Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician , Hebrew , Aramaic , Syriac , Arabic ʾ and North Arabian 𐪑. It also appears as South Arabian 𐩱 and Ge'ez .
These letter ...
(1),
Bet
Black Entertainment Television (acronym BET) is an American basic cable channel targeting African-American audiences. It is owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global via BET Networks and has offices in New York City, Los A ...
(2),
Gimel
Gimel is the third letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Gīml , Hebrew Gimel , Aramaic Gāmal , Syriac Gāmal , and Arabic (in alphabetical order; fifth in spelling order). Its sound value in the original Phoenician and in all d ...
(3), and
Dalet (4), respectively. Three streams of the
river Dan surround the kibbutz. As of it had a population of .
History
![Historical map series for the area of al-Shawka al-Tahta (1940s)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Historical_map_series_for_the_area_of_al-Shawka_al-Tahta_%281940s%29.jpg)
Early
Roman
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
*Rome, the capital city of Italy
*Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
*Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...
pottery fragments have been found in an excavation in Dafna. A place called Daphne was mentioned in this vicinity by
Josephus
Flavius Josephus (; grc-gre, Ἰώσηπος, ; 37 – 100) was a first-century Romano-Jewish historian and military leader, best known for ''The Jewish War'', who was born in Jerusalem—then part of Roman Judea—to a father of priestly d ...
.
[
Edward Robinson, who visited in 1852, identified Daphne with a "low mound of rubbish with cut stones, evidently the remains of a former town" called Difneh that he encountered while riding south from Tel el-Qadi to Mansura.] He noted that the land for some distance south was called Ard Difneh.[
The Survey of Western Palestine identified Daphne with Khirbet Dufnah, meaning "the ruin of Daphne (]oleander
''Nerium oleander'' ( ), most commonly known as oleander or nerium, is a shrub or small tree cultivated worldwide in temperate and subtropical areas as an ornamental and landscaping plant. It is the only species currently classified in the ge ...
)", which they marked on their map in the place where Al-Shawka al-Tahta
Al-Shawka al-Tahta was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 14, 1948, by the Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 31.5&nbs ...
was to stand later, about 1 km NNW of present-day Dafna.[ Later Israeli maps marked ''Khirbet Dafna'' at a different place 1km SE of Dafna (Sheet "Dan", 1:20,000, at 2109/2921, Survey of Israel 1956).]
An Arab settlement was founded sometime between 1858 and 1878. Difnah was listed as a village by the Mandate
Mandate most often refers to:
* League of Nations mandates, quasi-colonial territories established under Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations, 28 June 1919
* Mandate (politics), the power granted by an electorate
Mandate may also ...
government in 1924. At the time of the 1931 census, Dafna had 66 occupied houses and a population of 318 Muslims and one Christian. At the beginning of 1939, the village was pillaged by bedouin, causing most of the population to leave. The land was soon purchased by the Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund ( he, קֶרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael'', previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Syria (later Mandatory Palestine, and subseq ...
. The JNF was represented in the negotiations by the same man, Kamel Hussein, who had earlier led the raid on Tel-Hai
Tel Hai ( he, תֵּל חַי [] "Hill of Life") is a name of the former Jewish settlement in northern Galilee, the site of an early battle between Jews and Arabs heralding the growing civil conflict, and of a monument, tourist attraction, and a c ...
in which Josef Trumpeldor was killed.
The original Jewish settlers were immigrants mostly from Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
and Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
.
By the 1944/45 statistics, Dafna had a population of 380 Jews[Department of Statistics, 1945, p]
9
/ref> with a total land area of 2,663 dunams, of which Jews owned 2,189 dunams.[Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village Statistics, April, 1945,'' quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p]
69
Of this, a total of 2,385 dunam
A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...
s of land were irrigated or used for plantations, 5 dunums were used for cereals; while 50 dunams were classified as built-up (or Urban) area.
In 1947, it had a population of 600. During early 1947 Palmach Officer Moshe Kelman Moshe Kelman (2 September 1923 – 19 December 1980) was an Israeli military officer.
Early life
Kelman was born in Mazkeret Batya and was raised in Ness Ziona, Rehovot, and Ramat HaSharon. He joined the Haganah at age 15. In 1940 he moved to Ei ...
was ordered by the Haganah
Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...
High Command to supervise the execution and burial of a Jew accused of collaborating with the British. The execution took place at Kibbutz Dafna.
File:בעת העליה לדפנה בעמק החולה-JNF022221.jpeg, Dafna under construction, 1939
File:דפנה - העליה לדפנה בעמק החולה-JNF034615.jpeg, Dafna under construction, 1939
File:דפנה - ביקורו של אוסישקין במצודה שהוקמה על שמו-JNF039274.jpeg, Visit by Menachem Ussishkin 1 May 1939
File:דפנה - צריפים בראשיתו של הקיבוץ.-JNF034537.jpeg, Dafna barracks & tower 1939
File:חורבות ליד קיבוץ דפנה-ZKlugerPhotos-00132ft-090717068512166e.jpg, Dafna: Remains of Emir's palace 1940
File:דפנה - מראה-JNF008560.jpeg, Dafna 1942
File:Dafna vi.jpg, View of southern entrance to the farm, Dafna, 1947
File:Dafna ii.jpg, Dafna, 1948
After the 1948 Palestine war
The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. It is known in Israel as the War of Independence ( he, מלחמת העצמאות, ''Milkhemet Ha'Atzma'ut'') and ...
, Dafna took over part of the land belonging to the newly depopulated Palestinian village of Al-Sanbariyya
Al-Sanbariyya was a Palestinian village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 1, 1948, by Palmach's First Battalion under Operation Yiftach. It was located 31.5 km northea ...
.
According to a 1949 book by the Jewish National Fund
Jewish National Fund ( he, קֶרֶן קַיֶּימֶת לְיִשְׂרָאֵל, ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael'', previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Syria (later Mandatory Palestine, and subseq ...
, Dafna along with other border settlements of Dan
Dan or DAN may refer to:
People
* Dan (name), including a list of people with the name
** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark
* Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa
**Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoir ...
and Kfar Szold
Kfar Szold ( he, כְּפַר סָאלְד, ''lit.'' Szold Village) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Hula Valley in the Galilee Panhandle, it falls under the jurisdiction of Upper Galilee Regional Council. In it had a population o ...
held off the Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
n and Lebanese forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
Events January
* January 1
** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.
** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect.
** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...
. However, the settlement was often bombarded and was said to have suffered heavy damage.
The fictional kibbutz Gan Dafna, its name presumably a nod to the real-life kibbutz Dafna, figures prominently in Leon Uris's book Exodus
Exodus or the Exodus may refer to:
Religion
* Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible
* The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan
Historical events
* Ex ...
, as the hometown of the protagonist Ari Ben Caanan.
1997 Israeli helicopter disaster
On 4 February 1997, at approximately 19:00, two "Yasur" Sikorsky CH 53 helicopters carrying 73 soldiers and loaded with ammunition collided in mid-air over She'ar Yashuv
She'ar Yashuv ( he, שְׁאָר יָשׁוּב) is a moshav in northern Israel. Located in the Upper Galilee in the northeastern Hula Valley, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mevo'ot HaHermon Regional Council. In it had a population of .
The ...
. One of the helicopters smashed into an open field near the cemetery of Dafna. It is believed that this accident increased the pressure on the IDF
IDF or idf may refer to:
Defence forces
* Irish Defence Forces
* Israel Defense Forces
*Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006
* Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917
Organizations
* Israeli Diving Federation
* Interac ...
to withdraw its forces from Lebanon, finally done in May 2000.
Today a monument next to the cemetery of Dafna commemorates the 73 fallen soldiers. The monument consists of 73 obelisk
An obelisk (; from grc, ὀβελίσκος ; diminutive of ''obelos'', " spit, nail, pointed pillar") is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape or pyramidion at the top. Originally constructed by Anc ...
s and a running stream of water that leads, via a path of glass and stone to a huge tree whose leaves symbolize the names of those killed in the disaster. It is visited by many Israelis throughout the year.
Education
Har Vagai (mountain and valley), one of the junior and senior regional high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
s, is located in kibbutz Dafna. The school has 900-1000 pupils from 7th to 12th grade. The school covers an area of about 1 km square and the river Dan runs through the middle of the school grounds. The pupils are drawn from kibbutzim who were originally in the United Kibbutz movement (HaGoshrim
HaGoshrim ( he, הַגּוֹשְׁרִים, ) is a kibbutz in the Galilee Panhandle in northern Israel, 5 km east of Kiryat Shmona. The kibbutz is adjacent to the Hurshat Tal National Park and bisected by tributaries of the Jordan River, the ...
, Kfar Szold
Kfar Szold ( he, כְּפַר סָאלְד, ''lit.'' Szold Village) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Hula Valley in the Galilee Panhandle, it falls under the jurisdiction of Upper Galilee Regional Council. In it had a population o ...
and Dafna in the northern valley, Gadot, Mahanayim
Mahanayim ( he, מחניים, מַחֲנַיִם) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located in the Korazim Plateau, around three kilometres northeast of Rosh Pinna, it falls under the jurisdiction of Upper Galilee Regional Council. In it had a p ...
and Hulata in the south, Ein Zivan, Merom Golan
Merom Golan ( he, מְרוֹם גּוֹלָן) is an Israeli settlement organized as a kibbutz in the Western Golan Heights. The settlement was established as a kibbutz after Israel occupied the area in the Six Day War in 1967. The internatio ...
and El Rom on the Golan and Malkia
Malkia ( he, מַלְכִּיָּה) is a kibbutz in northern Israel. Located near the Lebanese border and Kiryat Shmona, it falls under the jurisdiction of Upper Galilee Regional Council. In it had a population of .
History
The village was est ...
, Manara and Misgav Am
Misgav Am ( he, מִשְׂגַּב עָם, ''lit.'' Fortress of the People) is a kibbutz in the Upper Galilee in northern Israel. Located close to the border with Lebanon, facing the Lebanese town of Odaisseh, and near the Israeli town of Kiryat S ...
on the mountains to the west) . Dan
Dan or DAN may refer to:
People
* Dan (name), including a list of people with the name
** Dan (king), several kings of Denmark
* Dan people, an ethnic group located in West Africa
**Dan language, a Mande language spoken primarily in Côte d'Ivoir ...
and Snir (originally Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair ( he, הַשׁוֹמֵר הַצָעִיר, , ''The Young Guard'') is a Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary, and it was also the name of the group ...
) also joined later, as did many students from towns such as Rosh Pinna, Metula and Yesud HaMa'ala
Yesud HaMa'ala ( he, יְסוּד הַמַּעֲלָה) is a moshava and local council in northern Israel. The moshava was the first modern Jewish community in the Hula Valley. Built in 1883, the community was among a series of agricultural settl ...
.
The school holds a memorial service and educational seminar every year to commemorate the 73 soldiers who were lost in the helicopter disaster of 4 February 1997.
The elementary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
for the kibbutz children is Aley Giva (atop a hill) which is situated in Kibbutz Kfar Giladi. The children from Dafna are taken by bus there and back every day.
There is a thriving education system of kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...
s for young children from the age of 6 months up to 6 years when they start the first year of school.
Economy
Dafna Industries was founded 1964 and is today one of the leading footwear
Footwear refers to garments worn on the feet, which typically serves the purpose of protection against adversities of the environment such as wear from ground textures and temperature. Footwear in the manner of shoes therefore primarily serves th ...
exporters of Israel. Its products are exported to Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
, North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography.
Etymology
T ...
and South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
. Following a downturn in the world economy the factory went through a difficult period and was eventually sold to another Israeli footwear manufacturer Teva Neot with Dafna retaining a portion of the shares.
Additional economic activities, which are part of the revenue producing activities of the kibbutz, are:
apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
, avocado
The avocado (''Persea americana'') is a medium-sized, evergreen tree in the laurel family (Lauraceae). It is native to the Americas and was first domesticated by Mesoamerican tribes more than 5,000 years ago. Then as now it was prized for i ...
and grapefruit
The grapefruit (''Citrus'' × ''paradisi'') is a subtropical citrus tree known for its relatively large, sour to semi-sweet, somewhat bitter fruit. The interior flesh is segmented and varies in color from pale yellow to dark pink.
Grapefruit is ...
orchard
An orchard is an intentional plantation of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit- or nut-producing trees which are generally grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of larg ...
s, cotton
Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...
growing, dairy cattle and commercial fish ponds and renting accommodation. In addition, the tourist guest house "Ganei Dafna" (Garden of Dafna) offers recreational diversion.
The kibbutz also runs a fish restaurant
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...
and camping ground where visitors can pitch their tents next to the river and enjoy a grilled trout in the restaurant nearby. Dafna cooperated with Dan in establishing the first trout
Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', ''Salmo'' and ''Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salmoni ...
-breeding enterprise in the area.
References
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
External links
Kibbutz Dafna Official Website
{{Authority control
Kibbutzim
Kibbutz Movement
Populated places established in 1939
Jewish villages in Mandatory Palestine
1939 establishments in Mandatory Palestine
Populated places in Northern District (Israel)