Kfar Malal () 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. Located in the Sharon plain, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Drom HaSharon Regional Council The Drom HaSharon Regional Council () is a regional council located partly in the Sharon region and partly in the Central Coastal Plain region of the Central District of Israel. The council's headquarters are located on Highway 40 near Neve Ya ...

. In it had a population of .

History

Before the 20th century the area formed part of the Forest of Sharon. It was an open

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with woody plants (trees and shrubs), or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunli ...

dominated by Mount Tabor Oak, which extended from

Kfar Yona Kfar Yona () is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel. It is located between the cities Netanya and Tulkarm, about 8 km east of Netanya in the central junction between Highway 6 (Israel), Highway 6 and Highway 4 ...

in the north to

Ra'anana Ra'anana () is an affluent city in the southern Sharon, Israel, Sharon Plain of the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel. It was founded in 1922 as an American-Jewish settlement, 1 km south of the village of Tabsur, where a ...

in the south. The local Arab inhabitants traditionally used the area for pasture, firewood and intermittent cultivation. The intensification of settlement and agriculture in the

coastal plain A coastal plain (also coastal plains, coastal lowland, coastal lowlands) is an area of flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and an upland area. Formation Coastal plains can f ...

during the 19th century led to deforestation and subsequent

environmental degradation Environment most often refers to: __NOTOC__ * Natural environment, referring respectively to all living and non-living things occurring naturally and the physical and biological factors along with their chemical interactions that affect an organism ...

. The village was established in 1911 as "Ein Hai" (lit. ''Fountain of the Living'') on privately owned land. The original name was based on the name of ruins previously located there, ''Khurbet el-Haiyeh''. In 1914 the village was renamed into Kfar Malal after

Moshe Leib Lilienblum Moshe Leib Lilienblum (; October 22, 1843, in Keidany, Kovno Governorate – February 12, 1910, in Odessa) was a Jewish scholar and author. He also used the pseudonym Zelophehad Bar-Hushim (). Lilienbloom was one of the leaders of the early Zioni ...

, an early leader of the

Hovevei Zion The Lovers of Zion, also ''Hovevei Zion'' () or ''Hibbat Zion'' (, ), were a variety of proto-Zionist organizations founded in 1881 in response to the anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire and were officially constituted as a group at a conf ...

movement, whose acronym in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

is MLL (מל"ל). The village was destroyed in the battles of World War I, resettled by a group of laborers and ravaged again in the 1921 Jaffa riots. More information in The remnants of the historic Moshava in Kfar Malal. In 1922, the land was transferred to the

Jewish National Fund The Jewish National Fund (JNF; , ''Keren Kayemet LeYisrael''; previously , ''Ha Fund HaLeumi'') is a non-profit organizationProfessor Alon Tal, The Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, The Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben Gurion ...

and Kfar Malal was rebuilt as a moshav. It suffered more attacks in the

1929 Palestine riots The 1929 Palestine riots, Buraq Uprising (, ) or the Events of 1929 (, , ''lit.'' Events of 5689 Anno Mundi), was a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 in which a longstanding dispute between Palestinian Arabs and Jews ove ...

Ariel Sharon Ariel Sharon ( ; also known by his diminutive Arik, ; 26 February 192811 January 2014) was an Israeli general and politician who served as the prime minister of Israel from March 2001 until April 2006. Born in Kfar Malal in Mandatory Palestin ...

, Israel's eleventh

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, was born in Kfar Malal. His parents moved there in 1922. The first year and a half they lived in a tent while his father built a two-room house. Initially their mule and cow were kept in one of the rooms. There was no electricity or running water. In his autobiography he recalls watching rats crawling around the roof space. He also recalled that his mother slept with a rifle under her bed until her dying day due to the trauma of hiding in the cowshed with her children at night to escape roving

Bedouin The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu ( ; , singular ) are pastorally nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia (Iraq). The Bedouin originated in the Sy ...

gangs. File:כפר מלל - מראה.-JNF045146.jpeg, Kfar Malal 1943 File:Biyar 'Adas 1942.jpg, Kfar Malal 1942 1:20,000 File:Qalqilya 1945.jpg, Kfar Malal 1945 1:250,000

Economy

In 2006, Malal Park Industries Ltd, co-owned by members of Kfar Malal, signed an agreement with the German bank Eurohypo AG to refinance Park Azorim in Kiryat Aryeh,

Petah Tikva Petah Tikva (, ), also spelt Petah Tiqwa and known informally as Em HaMoshavot (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of the Old Y ...

. In 2009, NI Medical, a biotech company located in Kfar Malal, received approval by the U.S.

Food and Drug Administration The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a List of United States federal agencies, federal agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is respo ...

(FDA) for a device that assesses left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD). The device aids physicians in detecting heart failure in its pre-clinical, asymptomatic phase.Asymptomatic HF detection device receives FDA thumbs up
Health Imaging

Notable people

(1928–2014), Israeli general and politician who served as the 11th Prime Minister of Israel.

References

{{Authority control 1929 Palestine riots Moshavim Populated places in Central District (Israel) 1911 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Populated places established in 1911