Kfar Chabad
Kfar Chabad is a Chabad-Lubavitch community settlement in the Central District of Israel. Between Beit Dagan and Lod, it falls under the jurisdiction of Sdot Dan Regional Council. In it had a population of.
History
The site had previously been the depopulated Palestinian Arab village of al-Safiriyya. During the 16 century, the haseki sultan endowed al-Safiriyya to its soup kitchen in Jerusalem. Under Ottoman rule, the area of Kfar Chabad belonged to the Nahiyeh of Lod that encompassed the area of the present-day city of Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut in the south to the present-day city of El'ad in the north, and from the foothills in the east, through the Lod Valley to the outskirts of Jaffa in the west. This area was home to thousands of inhabitants in about 20 villages, who had at their disposal tens of thousands of hectares of prime agricultural land.Kfar Chabad was established in 1949 by Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn. As late as 1957 it was referred to in Hebrew as Tzafrir or Shafrir.
The first inhabitants were mostly recent immigrants from the Soviet Union, survivors of World War II and Stalinist oppression. Regarding their aliyah, the Jewish Observer reported: “There were several noteworthy aspect of this Aliyah. Chabad members refused all offers of help from religious and political organizations; they insisted on going on the land. Adapting themselves to modern agricultural methods ... To them it was a point of honor to live as they were taught. This meant subsisting only on what they earned by their own toil".
Kfar Chabad, which is just outside Lod and about 8 km southeast of Tel Aviv, includes agricultural lands as well as numerous educational institutions. It serves as the headquarters of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement in Israel. Kfar Chabad is a Lubavitch community.