Kfar Menahem (, ''lit.'' Menahem Village) is a

kibbutz A kibbutz ( / , ; : kibbutzim / ) is an intentional community in Israel that was traditionally based on agriculture. The first kibbutz, established in 1910, was Degania Alef, Degania. Today, farming has been partly supplanted by other economi ...

in southern

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 about 7 km east of

Kiryat Malakhi Kiryat Malakhi () also spelled Kiryat Malahi, Kiryat Malachi, or Qiryat Mal'akhi, is a city in the Southern District of Israel, northeast of Ashkelon. In it had a population of . Its jurisdiction is 4,632 dunams (~4.6 km2). History Q ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Yoav Regional Council Yoav Regional Council (, ''Mo'atza Azorit Yoav'') is a regional council in the Southern District of Israel. It is located near the cities of Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Malakhi and Ashkelon. It was founded in 1952, covering an area of 230,000 dunams (23 ...

. In it had a population of .

History

Kfar Menahem (originally ''Irgun Menahem'') was founded in 1935 by a group of pioneers from

Rehovot Rehovot (, / ) is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of . Etymology Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu (movement), Bilu movement, proposed the name "Rehovot ...

. The village was named for

Menachem Ussishkin Menachem Ussishkin ( ''Avraham Menachem Mendel Ussishkin'', ; August 14, 1863 – October 2, 1941) was a Russian-born Zionist leader and head of the Jewish National Fund. Biography Menachem Ussishkin was born in Dubrowna in the Belarusian ...

, that was a

Zionist Zionism is an Ethnic nationalism, ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in History of Europe#From revolution to imperialism (1789–1914), Europe in the late 19th century that aimed to establish and maintain a national home for the ...

leader and head of 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 ...

. During the

Arab revolt The Arab Revolt ( ), also known as the Great Arab Revolt ( ), was an armed uprising by the Hashemite-led Arabs of the Hejaz against the Ottoman Empire amidst the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. On the basis of the McMahon–Hussein Co ...

in 1936, the place was abandoned by

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

s and destroyed by

Arabs Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of yea ...

. On 28 July 1937, it was re-established as a moshav but could not sustain itself. In 1939, the Irgun Menachem group was replaced by the Kvutzat Krit group from the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, members of

Hashomer Hatzair Hashomer Hatzair (, , 'The Young Guard') is a Labor Zionism, Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary. It was also the name of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party, the ...

who were training in the

moshava A moshava (, plural: ''moshavot'' , ''colony'' or ''village'') was a form of agricultural Jewish settlement in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine (now Israel), established by the members of the Old Yishuv beginning in the late 1870s ...

of Hadar, near Ramatayim. That year, members of the Irgun Menachem group who had left Kfar Menahem founded

Kfar Warburg Kfar Warburg () is a large moshav in south-central Israel. Located near Kiryat Malakhi with 98 farms covering an area of 6,000 dunams, it falls under the jurisdiction of Be'er Tuvia Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The m ...

. Kfar Menahem was established as a Tower and Stockade colony on December 6, 1939 on a 3,650 dunam tract which had been purchased in 1935. The founders were a group of 32 American immigrants. By 1943, there were 245 inhabitants who worked in mixed farming (grains, vegetables, cattle, sheep and poultry) and industry (carpentry and garage). After the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, the kibbutz expanded onto about 9,000 dunams on land of the depopulated Arab village of

Idnibba Idnibba () was a Palestinian village, located at latitude 31.7426937N and longitude 34.8561001,E in the southern part of the Ramle Subdistrict. It was depopulated in 1948, at which time its population was 568, and its lands are now used by Kfar ...

. The

high school "Tzafit" is located in Kfar Menahem. The kibbutz also operates a regional museum with a model of the original tower and stockade.

Architecture

The Beit Habanim culture hall in Kfar Menachem was designed by renowned architect R. Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the

geodesic In geometry, a geodesic () is a curve representing in some sense the locally shortest path ( arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a conn ...

dome. It is an example of

Brutalist architecture Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by Minimalism (art), minimalist constructions th ...

, using exposed concrete.A Forgotten Kibbutz Building Designed by Buckminster Fuller Holds a Lesson for Tel Aviv Architects

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

Notable people

Juval Aviv Juval Aviv (; February 24, 1947), also Yuval Aviv, is an Israeli-American security consultant and founder of Interfor International,"A Look Ahead At The ABA Banking Leaders Forum And Annual Convention," ''ABA Banking Journal'' 99.8 (2007): 15. Bus ...

(born 1947), former Mossad officer, later security consultant *

Sandra Bernhard Sandra Bernhard (born June 6, 1955) is an American actress, comedian, and singer. She first gained attention in the late 1970s with her stand-up comedy, where she often critiqued celebrity culture and political figures. Bernhard is also well kn ...

, American comedian who worked as a volunteer in Kfar Menachem in the early 1970s

Gallery

File:כפר מנחם - בניית הישוב.-JNF034614.jpeg, Kfar Menahem under construction 1937 File:כפר מנחם - מראה כללי.-JNF034679.jpeg, Kfar Menahem under construction 1937 File:כפר מנחם - מראה.-JNF045540.jpeg, Kfar Menahem completed tower 1937 File:כפר מנחם - חגיגת טקס הזריעה.-JNF045280.jpeg, Kfar Menahem 1939 File:כפר מנחם - האופה-JNF001518.jpeg, Kfar Menahem bakery File:Idhnibba 1945.jpg, Kfar Menahem 1945 1:250,000 File:Idhnibba 1948.jpg, Kfar Menahem 1948 1:20,000

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Kibbutzim Kibbutz Movement Populated places established in 1935 Populated places established in 1937 1935 establishments in Mandatory Palestine 1937 establishments in Mandatory Palestine Populated places in Southern District (Israel)