Shefayim ( he, שְׁפָיִים, ''lit.'' High Hills) 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 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 2.5 miles north of

Herzliya Herzliya ( ; he, הֶרְצְלִיָּה ; ar, هرتسليا, Hirtsiliyā) is an affluent city in the central coast of Israel, at the northern part of the Tel Aviv District, known for its robust start-up and entrepreneurial culture. In it h ...

along the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

coast. Shefayim falls under the jurisdiction of

Hof HaSharon Regional Council Hof HaSharon Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית חוף השרון, ''Mo'atza Azorit Hof HaSharon'', ''lit.'' Sharon Coast Regional Council), is a regional council in the Central and Tel Aviv districts of Israel. It is located on the c ...

. In it had a population of .

History

Kibbutz Shefayim was established in 1935 by Jewish immigrants from Poland. The name is taken from the

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( he, ספר ישעיהו, ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC ...

: "I will open rivers in high hills." (). During the

British Mandate for Palestine The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordan, both of which had been conceded by the Ottoman Empire following the end of World War I in 1918. The manda ...

, Shefayim was a base for clandestine immigration. Shfayim ii

In the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 (or First) Arab–Israeli War was the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. It formally began following the end of the British Mandate for Palestine at midnight on 14 May 1948; the Israeli Declaration of Independence had ...

, it absorbed refugees from the abandoned kibbutz

Beit HaArava Beit HaArava ( he, בֵּית הָעֲרָבָה, lit. ''House of the Arava'') is an Israeli settlement and kibbutz in the West Bank. Located near the Dead Sea and Jericho at the eponymous Beit HaArava Junction, the intersection of Highway 1 an ...

near the

Dead Sea The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...

In the early 1970s, the kibbutz established Polycad, a plastics factory. In the early 1980s, it established the Shafit

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

plant. In the mid-1990s, it acquired the Zirei Israel plant, which has become a leader in the Israeli cotton-ginning industry. In 2012 IBM acquired New York- and Shefayim-based mobile application developer Worklight Ltd., founded in 2006 by Shahar Kaminitz, formerly of

Amdocs Amdocs ( he, אמדוקס) is a multinational corporation that was founded in Israel and currently headquartered in Chesterfield, Missouri, with support and development centers located worldwide. The company specializes in software and services ...

Economy

PikiWiki Israel 33590 Culture center in Kibbutz Shefayim

Kibbutz Shefayim is among the wealthiest kibbutzim and was one of the few that did not require debt assistance from the state and banks during the recession in the 1980s. On the contrary, Shefayim contributed NIS 4 million to help failing kibbutzim. The main income source of the kibbutz is Hutzot Shefayim, a shopping mall, on real-estate previously classified as agricultural land. Other sources of income are a hotel and conference center, and a water park.

Notable people

Orit Noked Orit Noked ( he, אורית נוקד, born 25 October 1952) is an Israeli politician who served as a member of the Knesset for Independence and the Labor Party and as Minister of Agriculture. Biography Born in Jerusalem in 1952, Noked studied l ...

(born 1952), former member of the Knesset *

Rachel Shapira Rachel Shapira ( he, רחל שפירא, born July 25 1945) is an Israeli songwriter and poet. She rose to prominence after the Six-Day War with her anti-war song "''Mah Avarekh''" ("With What Shall I Bless?"), set to music by Yair Rosenblum, and w ...

(born 1945), songwriter and poet *

Uri Ben-Ari Uri Ben-Ari ( he, אורי בן-ארי) (1925–2009) was ''tat aluf'' (brigadier general) of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), diplomat and writer.Shefayim water park
an

in English
Hotel Shefayim
{{Authority control Kibbutzim Kibbutz Movement Populated places established in 1935 Populated places in Central District (Israel) 1935 establishments in Mandatory Palestine Polish-Jewish culture in Israel