Kfar Hittim

Kfar Hittim (Hebrew: כְּפַר חִטִּים‎‎) was the first moshav shitufi and the first Tower and stockade settlement in Israel. The moshav, a small farming community of 75 families,^[1] is under the jurisdiction of the Lower Galilee Regional Council in northern Israel.

The moshav land was purchased by the Jewish National Fund in 1905 with the help of David Chaim, an Ottoman citizen previously in the employ of Edmond James de Rothschild. Two thousand dunams of land, consisting of 400 small parcels, were purchased from the Arab village of Hittin. The first attempt to settle there in 1913 failed due to friction with the local Arabs, the shortage of water and the lack of contiguity of the land.

In 1924, another attempt was made to settle in Kfar Hittin. Forty families moved to the site, where they lived in wooden cabins and built a barn, a communal chicken coop, a synagogue and a water tower. In the 1929 Palestine riots the moshav was attacked by the Arabs. As economic and security problems mounted, families left until the site was abandoned completely in 1933. In December 1936, 11 pioneers re-established the moshav as a tower and stockade settlement.

Kfar Hittim (lit village of wheat) lies near a famous battleground of the Third Crusade. In 1187, the Muslim warrior Saladin defeated the Crusader army in the Battle of Hittin, leading to the siege and defeat of the Crusaders who controlled Jerusalem. The twin hills and valley where the battle took place are known as Karnei Hittim (Horns of Hittin). ^[2]

In 2008, it was announced that a $150 million golf course designed by Robert Trent Jones, Jr. would be built on land owned by the moshav. ^[3]

Tradition has it that Kever Yitro (Jethro's grave) is located in the moshav. ^[4]

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