Introduction

Kfar Vitkin^1,2 ('Vitkin Village') was founded in 1930 and named after Yosef Vitkin, an educator and Labour leader of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Kfar Vitkin is located six kilometers north of Netanya.

The initial group of twenty settlers lived in an old stone house on a hill south of what was to be come the settlement. The early efforts of the settlers were devoted to draining the swamps of Wadi Khwarat and planting trees. In the early 1930's, a village began to form with the establishment of a school, a grocery store, and other buildings essential to civilization. In 1932, the Vitkin Union³ was established; this was the foundation of modern kfar Vitkin.

Currently, the moshav includes one-hundred-fifty farms and 1,800 residents. The farms are oriented toward the production of flowers, turkeys, and chickens.

Yosef Vitkin⁴ was born in Mogilev, Belarus (formerly Byelorussia) in 1876 and moved to Palestine when he was twenty-one. Initially, Vitkin worked as a laborer; later, being educated, he became a teacher and headmaster in the moshavim of Gedera, Kfar Tabor, and Rishon LeZion. In 1905, he wrote a pamphlet, Kol Kore el Ze'irei Yisrael Asher Libbam le-Ammam u-le-Ziyyon ('A Call to the Youth of Israel Whose Hearts are with their People and with Zion'), that encouraged young Jews from Eastern Europe and Russia to immigrate to Palestine. Vitkin's pamphlet played a significant role in the success of the Second Aliyah.

Niv Adiri, a sound engineer, was born and raised in Kfar Vitkin; he spent his early years milking cows before he went to school each day. Niv shared a BAFTA Award for Best Sound and an Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing for his work on the 2013 movie 'Gravity', starring Sandra Bullock.