Kefar Tavor
KEFAR TAVOR
KEFAR TAVOR (Heb. כְּפַר תָּבוֹר; initially better known by its Arab name Mesḥah ), moshavah at the foot of Mt. Tabor, Israel, 10½ mi. (17 km.) N.E. of Afulah, founded in 1901 by the *Jewish Colonization Association as one of the villages based on the settlers' own labor, with grain cultivation as a principal branch. Until World War i, Kefar Tavor was a center for the activity of *Ha-Shomer, the first armed Jewish defense organization in Ereẓ Israel. Lack of water impeded the village's economic progress for many years. Later field and fruit crops have constituted its main farming branches. In 1968 its population was 315. In the mid-1990s the population was approximately 1,140 and by the end of 2002 it had doubled to 2,290 owing to the expansion of the moshavah, with the majority of residents no longer farmers and income well above the national average. The village extends over an area of 4 sq. mi. (10.6 sq. km.).
[Efraim Orni /
Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]