Kfar Uria ( he, כְּפַר אוּרִיָּה, ) 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 an ...
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 near
Beit Shemesh
Beit Shemesh ( he, בֵּית שֶׁמֶשׁ ) is a city located approximately west of Jerusalem in Israel's Jerusalem District, with a population of in .
History Tel Beit Shemesh
The small archaeological tell northeast of the modern city wa ...
in the
Shephelah
The Shephelah or Shfela, lit. "lowlands" ( hbo, הַשְּפֵלָה ''hašŠǝfēlā'', also Modern Hebrew: , ''Šǝfēlat Yəhūda'', the "Judaean foothills"), is a transitional region of soft-sloping rolling hills in south-central Israel str ...
. It falls under the jurisdiction of
Mateh Yehuda Regional Council
Mateh Yehuda Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית מטה יהודה, ''Mo'atza Azorit Mateh Yehuda'', ar, مجلس إقليمي ماتيه يهودا ) is a regional council in the Jerusalem District of Israel. In 2008 it was home to 3 ...
. In it had a population of .
History
The village was first established in 1912 on land purchased by the Palestine Office (''Palaestinaamt'').
[, s.v. ] It was named after the Arab village of Kafrûria, an "abandoned or sparsely populated" estate situated about half a kilometer west of the new settlement. These lands were to serve as an agricultural training place.
Among the village's early founders and residents was
A. D. Gordon
Aaron David Gordon ( he, אהרן דוד גורדון; ), more commonly known as A. D. Gordon, was a Labour Zionist thinker and the spiritual force behind practical Zionism and Labor Zionism. He founded Hapoel Hatzair, a movement that set the t ...
.
According to a
census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...
conducted in 1922 by the
British Mandate authorities, Kfar Uria had a population of 40 Jews.
The census in 1931 recorded 10 Muslim inhabitants living in 2 houses.
[Mills, 1932, p]
21
/ref>
In the 1929 Palestine riots
The 1929 Palestine riots, Buraq Uprising ( ar, ثورة البراق, ) or the Events of 1929 ( he, מאורעות תרפ"ט, , ''lit.'' Events of 5689 Anno Mundi), was a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 in which a longst ...
Arab rioters from Jerusalem attacked Kfar Uria, with some local help, robbed and burned down the village. The inhabitants of the adjacent Arab villages for the most part were on good terms with the village's residents and many treated the moshav's association director, Baruch Yakimovsky, as their mukhtar
A mukhtar ( ar, مختار, mukhtār, chosen one; el, μουχτάρης) is a village chief in the Levant: "an old institution that goes back to the time of the Ottoman rule". According to Amir S. Cheshin, Bill Hutman and Avi Melamed, the muk ...
(village chief). He was on amicable terms with mukhtars in surrounding villages. The farmers of the area, both Jews and Arabs, cooperated and defended each other against raiding nomadic Bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
.
Six Jewish families who had stayed behind were later smuggled out by the mukhtar of Beit Far via one of the ancient natural tunnels that crisscrosses the area. Yakimovsky managed, with the cooperation of some local mukhtars to work Kfar Uria's land for a few more years. In 1944, Jewish stonecutters from Kurdistan rebuilt the village on the ruins of the original site, around 1.5 km north-west Khirbat Ism Allah
Khirbat Ism Allah was a Palestinian Arab hamlet in the Jerusalem Subdistrict, located 26 km west of Jerusalem. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War on July 17, 1948, by the Harel Brigade of Operation Dani. Khirbat Ism Alla ...
, but not on village land.
File:סביב הבאר בכפר-אוריה-JNF003150.jpeg, Kfar Uria village well 1912
File:כפר אוריה - מראה כללי.-JNF034953.jpeg, Kfar Uria 1945
File:Beit JIz 1942.jpg, Kfar Uria 1942 1:20,000
File:Latrun 1945.jpg, Kfar Uria 1945 1:250,000
The new village was attacked on 11 January 1948, but repelled by a combination of a Palmach
The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Companies") was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach ...
force and an armoured British unit. Haganah guards murdered without provocation an Arab peasant couple near the village soon after, in February of that year. A third attempt to settle the area was undertaken in 1949, when a moshav was established on the site. The village name is similar to that of Khirbet Cafarorie, a ruin located south - west of the village, which had a rock-hewn winepress, a mosaic and burial caves.
The village center features an old Khan
Khan may refer to:
*Khan (inn), from Persian, a caravanserai or resting-place for a travelling caravan
*Khan (surname), including a list of people with the name
*Khan (title), a royal title for a ruler in Mongol and Turkic languages and used by ...
, which once hosted the agricultural training workers, including A. D. Gordon. The Khan structure remains to this day at the heart of the community, but it requires renovations and therefore closed to visitors.
Between 2009 and 2011 a new neighborhood was built and populated with 69 new houses and families.
In 2013, an archaeological survey was conducted at the site by Irina Zilberbod on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA, he, רשות העתיקות ; ar, داﺌرة الآثار, before 1990, the Israel Department of Antiquities) is an independent Israeli governmental authority responsible for enforcing the 1978 Law of ...
(IAA).
Landmarks
In 1970, Israeli artist Avraham Ofek
Avraham Ofek ( he, אברהם אופק; August 14, 1935 – January 13, 1990) was a multidisciplinary Israeli artist.
Biography
Avraham Ofek was born in Burgas, Bulgaria. Within two years of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, ...
created a mural for the community center at Kfar Uria. The mural, which covers three walls, each 12.5 meters long and three meters high, tells the story of Israel focusing on the themes of immigration, building the country, and family and Jewish tradition.
See also
*Israeli art
Visual arts in Israel refers to Plastic arts, plastic art created first in the Palestine region, region of Palestine, from the later part of the 19th century until 1948 and subsequently in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories by List ...
References
{{Jewish villages depopulated during the 1929 Palestine riots
Moshavim
Populated places established in 1912
Populated places established in 1944
Populated places established in 1949
Populated places in Jerusalem District
1912 establishments in the Ottoman Empire
1929 Palestine riots
Polish-Jewish culture in Israel