Kfar Chabad ( he, כְּפַר חַבָּ"ד, ''lit.'' "Chabad Village") is a

Chabad-Lubavitch Chabad, also known as Lubavitch, Habad and Chabad-Lubavitch (), is an Orthodox Jewish Hasidic dynasty. Chabad is one of the world's best-known Hasidic movements, particularly for its outreach activities. It is one of the largest Hasidic group ...

village 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 ...

. Between Beit Dagan and

Lod Lod ( he, לוד, or fully vocalized ; ar, اللد, al-Lidd or ), also known as Lydda ( grc, Λύδδα), is a city southeast of Tel Aviv and northwest of Jerusalem in the Central District of Israel. It is situated between the lower Shephe ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Sdot Dan Regional Council Sdot Dan Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית שדות דן, ''Mo'atza Azorit Sdot Dan'', ''lit.'' Dan Fields Regional Council) is a regional council in the Central District of Israel. Founded in 1952, it borders Ben Gurion Internationa ...

. In it had a population of .

History

The site had previously been the depopulated Palestinian village of

al-Safiriyya Al-Safiriyya was a Palestinian Arab village in the Jaffa Subdistrict. It was depopulated during Operation Hametz in the 1948 Palestine War on May 20, 1948. It was located 11 km east of Jaffa, 1.5 km west of Ben Gurion Airport. Startin ...

(known to the Byzantines and Crusaders as Sapharea or Saphyria). During the 16 century, Haseki sultan endowed al-Safiriyya to its Jerusalem soup kitchen. Under Ottoman rule, the area of Kfar Chabad belonged to the Nahiyeh (sub-district) of

that encompassed the area of the present-day city of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut in the south to the present-day city of El'ad in the north, and from the foothills in the east, through the Lod Valley to the outskirts of

Jaffa Jaffa, in Hebrew Yafo ( he, יָפוֹ, ) and in Arabic Yafa ( ar, يَافَا) and also called Japho or Joppa, the southern and oldest part of Tel Aviv-Yafo, is an ancient port city in Israel. Jaffa is known for its association with the b ...

in the west. This area was home to thousands of inhabitants in about 20 villages, who had at their disposal tens of thousands of hectares of prime agricultural land. Kfar Chabad was established in 1949 by Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. As late as 1957 it was referred to in Hebrew as Tzafrir or Shafrir. The first inhabitants were mostly recent immigrants from the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, survivors of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...

oppression. Regarding their

aliyah Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the Israel, State of Israel ...

, the ''

Jewish Observer ''The Jewish Observer'' was an American Orthodox Jewish magazine published by the Agudath Israel of America, from 1963 until 2009. It was put on "hiatus" in 2009, with plans to restart once the finances of the magazine, affected by the economic cr ...

'' reported: “There were several noteworthy aspect of this Aliyah. Chabad members refused all offers of help from religious and political organizations; they insisted on going on the land. Adapting themselves to modern agricultural methods ... To them it was a point of honor to live as they were taught. This meant subsisting only on what they earned by their own toil". Kfar Chabad, which is just outside

and about 8 km southeast of

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

, includes agricultural lands as well as numerous educational institutions. It serves as the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch

Hasidic Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

movement in Israel. Kfar Chabad is a Lubavitch community.

Replica of "770"

The village features a full-scale replica of "770", the world headquarters of Chabad at

770 Eastern Parkway 770 Eastern Parkway ( yi, 770 איסטערן פארקוויי), also known as "770", is the street address of the World Headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement, located on Eastern Parkway in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, ...

Crown Heights, Brooklyn Crown Heights is a neighborhood in the central portion of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Crown Heights is bounded by Washington Avenue to the west, Atlantic Avenue to the north, Ralph Avenue to the east, and Empire Boulevard/East New Yo ...

, New York, which was built in 1986. The building, which serves as a

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

, includes the exact same number of bricks as the original structure; the brickwork was produced by Teracotta Ofakim Clay Industries in Ofakim. The Lubavitcher Rebbe covered the US$700,000 building cost.

Railway station

Kfar Chabad has a

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

served by trains on the line between Binyamina and Ashkelon. It was built in 1952 and rebuilt in 1999.

Terror attack at the vocational school

Vocational school in Kfar Chabad On 11 April 1956, fedayeens entered the synagogue in a vocational school during evening prayers and started shooting indiscriminately. Five children and one teacher were killed, another ten injured.

Education

Kfar Chabad provides vocational training in printing, mechanics, carpentry, and agriculture for male students, and education for female students. The programs are combined with religious education. Most students, who come from outside the village, are not

Political leadership

Previous mayors include Shlomo Meidanchik and Menachem Lehrer. The current mayor is Nachmen Richman.

Religious leadership

The village

rabbi A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...

was Mordechai Shmuel Ashkenazi from 1983 until his death in 2015. The previous rabbi was Shneur Zalman Gorelik, from the town's founding until his death.

References

{{Authority control Chabad communities Chabad in Israel Orthodox Jewish communities Populated places established in 1949 1949 establishments in Israel Religious Israeli communities Villages in Israel Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn Populated places in Central District (Israel)