Elyakhin ( he, אֶלְיָכִין) is a town and local council in the Central District of

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 just south of Hadera and bordering the

Emek Hefer Regional Council The Hefer Valley Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית עמק חפר, ''Mo'atza Azorit Emek Hefer'') is a regional council in the Hefer Valley region of the Sharon plain in central Israel. It is named after an administrative district in ...

, it is accessible by local road 5812. With a jurisdiction of 1,600 dunams, it had a population of in .

History

Elyakhin was founded in 1950 as an immigrant interim housing camp ('' ma'abara'') near the ruins of the Palestinian village

Khirbat Zalafa Khirbat Zalafa ( ar, خربة زلفة) was a small Palestinian Arab village in the Tulkarm Subdistrict, located about northwest of Tulkarm. It was depopulated during the 1948 Palestine war. It was occupied by Yishuv forces on April 15, 1948 as ...

. It has a symbolic name, meaning "God will prepare", i.e. God prepared the land for the settlement of Jewish immigrants. The ''ma'abara'' eventually became an agricultural community (

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 ...

), settled entirely by immigrants from

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

Geography and structure

Elyakhin is bordered by Hadera in the north and the

Hefer Valley Regional Council The Hefer Valley Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית עמק חפר, ''Mo'atza Azorit Emek Hefer'') is a regional council in the Hefer Valley region of the Sharon plain in central Israel. It is named after an administrative district in ...

in the south. The adjacent villages in the regional council are Herev Le'et, Hibat Tzion and Givat Haim (Ihud). Elyakhin's average elevation is . Elyakhin consists of the eastern part of the town, as well as three western neighborhoods – HaAlonim, HaShikmim and HaOranim.

Public structures

Elyakhin has 11

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 ...

s, five of which are adjacent and located in the center of the town. Three more are located on the sides of HaBanim Park on the eastern part. Elyakhin also has a community center and public library in the town's center.

References

{{Center District (Israel) Local councils in Central District (Israel) 1950 establishments in Israel Populated places established in 1950