Bitan Aharon () is a

moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

in central

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Located in the Sharon plain between

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

and

Netanya Netanya () () or Natanya (), is a city in the "Planet Bekasi" Central District (Israel), Setanyahu of Israel, Israel BAB ih, and is the capital of the surrounding Sharon plain. It is north of Tel Aviv, and south of Haifa, between the Poleg stre ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Hefer Valley Regional Council The Hefer Valley Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Emek Hefer'') is a regional council in the Sharon region of the Central District of Israel. It is named after an administrative district in this area in the time of King Solomon (). The co ...

. 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 (; ''HaHistadrut HaTzionit Ha'Olamit''), or WZO, is a non-governmental organization that promotes Zionism. It was founded as the Zionist Organization (ZO; 1897–1960) at the initiative of Theodor Herzl at the F ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and an advisor to

Yehoshua Hankin Yehoshua Hankin (, 1864 – 11 November 1945) was a Zionism, Zionist activist who was responsible for most of the major land purchases of the World Zionist Organization, Zionist Organization in Ottoman Empire, Ottoman Palestine (region), Palesti ...

. 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 ( /) is the term used in Arabic and modern Hebrew for the rock type of which lithification, lithified sea sand dunes consist. The equivalent term used in Lebanon is ramleh. History Kurkar is the regional name for an aeolian quartz sands ...

ridge that runs on a north–south axis in this part of the

Israeli coastal plain The Israeli coastal plain () is the State of Israel, Israeli segment of the Levantine coastal plain of the Mediterranean Sea, extending north to south. It is a geographical region defined Geomorphology, morphologically by the sea, in terms of to ...

, and therefore includes a number of ancient rock-hewn tombs and burial caves. Flora includes ''

Ziziphus spina-christi ''Ziziphus spina-christi'', known as the Christ's thorn jujube, is a thorny and an evergreen tree or plant native to the Levant, East Africa, and Mesopotamia. Ecology In the Levant, it grows in valleys up to an elevation of 500 m, and is d ...

'' and ''

Pancratium Pankration (; ) was an unarmed combat sport introduced into the Greek Olympic Games in 648 BC. The athletes used boxing and wrestling techniques but also others, such as kicking, holds, joint locks, and chokes on the ground, making it s ...

parviflorum''.

Notable residents

Hen Lippin Hen Lippin (; born November 4, 1965, in Beitan Aharon), the youngest of three brothers, is a retired Israeli basketball player. Career Hen Lippin joined Maccabi Tel Aviv in 1984, and played at the club for six seasons, wearing number 10. He lat ...

(born 1965), basketball player *

Vadim Rabinovich Vadim Zinovyevich Rabinovich ( Ukrainian: Вадим Рабінович, Hebrew: ; born 4 August 1953) is an Israeli and formerly Ukrainian oligarch and Jewish community leader. He is a former leader of the banned Opposition Platform — For Li ...

(born 1953), former member of parliament in Ukraine

References

{{Authority control 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)