Schneerson founded first Chabad colony in Israel in 1949 using Soviet Jews
Kfar Chabad
Kfar Chabad, an Israeli settlement of Chabad Hasidim, was founded in Safari (near Tel Aviv) on Iyar 21, 1949, on the initiative of the 6th Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Y.-I. Schneerson.
June 16, 2009
The first inhabitants were Hasidim who arrived from the western regions of the USSR, as well as immigrants from Morocco, Yemen and the USA. After a short time, Kfar Chabad became one of the centers of Chabad in Israel, the yeshiva "Tomhei Tmimim", the women's pedagogical school "Beit Rivka", an agricultural school (in 1953), a craft school (in 1954) were built in it. In 1955, in connection with the tragic events in Israel, Rebbe SHLITA King Moshiach sent a group of students to Kfar Chabad to support the people of Israel, and opened the printing school "Yad a-Hamisha".
In 1976, the Rebbe Rebbe King Moshiach instructed Reb Shlomka Maidanchik, chairman of the Chabad Hasidic Association in Israel, to establish the Shifra and Pua organization in Kfar Chabad to help women in childbirth.
In 1983, a new building was built in Kfar Chabad - an exact copy of "770" on Eastern Parkway in New York.
Today, about 6,000 people live in Kfar Chabad.
Kfar Chabad and Safed
Few people know that Kfar Chabad was going to be founded near the city of Safed in the Galilee. This proposal came from Zalman Shazar, who at that time worked for the Jewish agency Sokhtut, during a meeting with Chabad Hasidim to discuss the site of the future settlement.
At one of the meetings, Shazar suggested that the Hasidim settle in Safed, explaining this by the similarity of the paths of Kabbalah and Hasidism. But r. Pinchas Altoiz refused and said: "We want a place in the center of the country, where we can develop and influence others."
