Kfar Uria

The place was originally called "Kiryat Moshe", after Moshe Mordechai Manisewicz, one of the leaders of the Bialystok Association, but the village's name was changed to Kfar Uria due to the similarity of the sounds to the name of the Arab village of Kafrûria, an "abandoned or sparsely populated" estate situated about half a kilometer west of the new settlement.{{Cite journal |last=Marom |first=Roy |date=2022-11-01 |title=Jindās: A History of Lydda's Rural Hinterland in the 15th to the 20th Centuries CE |url=https://www.academia.edu/90931976 |journal=Lod, Lydda, Diospolis |issue=1 |pages=26}}{{Cite journal |last1=וילנאי |first1=זאב |last2=Vilnai |first2=Z. |date=1954 |title=Hebrew Names of Settlements Derived from Arabic / שמות יישובים עברים שיסודם בשמות ערביים |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23729685 |journal=Bulletin of the Israel Exploration Society / ידיעות החברה לחקירת ארץ-ישראל ועתיקותיה |volume=יח |issue=ג/ד |pages=272 |jstor=23729685 |issn=2312-007X}} These lands were to serve as an agricultural training place.{{cite book |title=Israel Guide - Judaea (A useful encyclopedia for the knowledge of the country) |publisher=Keter Publishing House, in affiliation with the Israel Ministry of Defence |year=n.d. |editor=Ben-Yosef, Sefi |editor-link=:he:ספי בן-יוסף |volume=9 |location=Jerusalem |pages=278–279 |language=he |oclc=745203905}}, s.v. {{Script/Hebrew|כפר אוריה}} Among the village's early founders and residents was A. D. Gordon.{{Cite web |title=⁨באר _יז ישראל. ⁩ — ⁨⁨הצפירה⁩ 16 דצמבר 1912⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hzf/1912/12/16/01/article/14 |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}}

In December 1912, Ha-Tsfira published that a deal to purchase the land was approved by the Pasha, despite the ban on Jews purchasing land. But as the purchase was done by people that according to the Pasha are real farmers - Menashe Meirowitz and others from Rishon Lezion, Rehovot and Gedera, who, the ban did not apply on them.{{Cite web |title=⁨באר _יז ישראל. ⁩ — ⁨⁨הצפירה⁩ 16 דצמבר 1912⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hzf/1912/12/16/01/article/14 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} The land of an area of about 5000 dunams, was purchased from three Christian brothers and it was described as:{{Cite web |title=⁨באר _י ז ישראל ⁩ — ⁨⁨הצפירה⁩ 25 דצמבר 1912⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hzf/1912/12/25/01/article/14 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}}{{Cite web |title=⁨השבוע. ⁩ — ⁨⁨המצפה (קרקוב)⁩ 10 ינואר 1913⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/mzp/1913/01/10/01/article/10 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}}

"Half of it is plain land and fertile valleys, between the Judean mountains, which are very capable of sowing grain, and half of it is fertile land capable of olive and almond orchards. This village also has water springs, with whose waters you can irrigate fodder fields and engage in cattle breeding." There are also several buildings surrounded by hundreds of olive and almond trees and other species."

In fact, the place was purchased by the Geula company.{{Cite web |title=⁨־ מזולמנו . ⁩ — ⁨⁨הצפירה⁩ 7 אוגוסט 1913⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hzf/1913/08/07/01/article/15 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} As described by Shmuel Dayan, the purchase was made earlier, and for some time the fields were leased to the surrounding Arabs.{{Cite web |title=דמויות בשדות / דיין, שמואל - הגלריה לספרות - ספרים משומשים, נדירים ועתיקים |url=https://bookgallery.co.il/content/hebrew/bookpageschema.asp?BookPageID=177362 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=bookgallery.co.il |pages=59–61}}

In early 1913, Meir Rothberg invited the "Sajra gang", which included mong 13 others, A. d. Gordon, Noah Naftolsky, Yitzhak Tabenkin, Eva Tabenkin, Ben-Zion Israeli, Yosef Salzman and Yitzhak Finerman, to come and settle the place under the public administration of the Israel Ministry.{{Cite web |title=⁨‭99£$9#%>*_#* באר>_ז ישראל. ⁩ — ⁨⁨הצפירה⁩ 8 ינואר 1913⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hzf/1913/01/08/01/article/11 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} The group lived in Khan Kfar Uria and stayed there close to a year. On November 2, 1913, they left the place due to the transfer of the area to private management.{{Cite web |title=⁨השבוע. ⁩ — ⁨⁨הפועל הצעיר⁩ 15 אוקטובר 1913⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hhr/1913/10/15/01/article/18 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}}

By mid-1913, the place was sold to thirty families of Bialystok Jews{{Cite web |title=⁨העבודה הארצישראלית בשנת תרע"ג • ⁩ — ⁨⁨הצפירה⁩ 1 אוקטובר 1913⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hzf/1913/10/01/01/article/15 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} who bought it with the help of the Berlin Society for the Settlement of the Land of Israel (ICA).{{Cite web |title=⁨השבוע. ⁩ — ⁨⁨המצפה (קרקוב)⁩ 27 יוני 1913⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/mzp/1913/06/27/01/article/15 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} Following this, Eliezer Krasner was appointed as manager and he brought laborers to establish farms for the owners. The first group of laborers left the place as they claimed that Krasner lacks managerial experience and engages in religious coercion.{{Cite web |title=⁨ל ע נ י נ י השעה. ⁩ — ⁨⁨הפועל הצעיר⁩ 26 דצמבר 1913⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hhr/1913/12/26/01/article/6 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}}{{Cite web |title=⁨כפ ד־ א ו די ה ⁩ — ⁨⁨הפועל הצעיר⁩ 26 דצמבר 1913⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hhr/1913/12/26/01/article/18 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} Religious workers were brought to replace them.{{Cite web |title=⁨_ירושלם‭.. ⁩ — ⁨⁨מוריה⁩ 1 פברואר 1914⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/mrh/1914/02/01/01/article/10 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} In February 1914 the place suffered from an attack by the Arabs of the area.{{Cite web |title=⁨ההתנפלות על כפר אוריה. ⁩ — ⁨⁨מוריה⁩ 6 מרץ 1914⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/mrh/1914/03/06/01/article/4 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} In May 1914, Eliezer Krasner was fired{{Cite web |title=⁨השבוע. ⁩ — ⁨⁨הפועל הצעיר⁩ 29 מאי 1914⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hhr/1914/05/29/01/article/18 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} and in his place was brought a family of supervisors.{{Cite web |title=⁨כ.פ ר־א-ור י ה‭.. ⁩ — ⁨⁨הפועל הצעיר⁩ 31 יולי 1914⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hhr/1914/07/31/01/article/30 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} In July of that year, 25 Jewish laborers and 20 Arab laborers worked on the farm.{{Cite web |title=⁨ה שבוע. ⁩ — ⁨⁨הפועל הצעיר⁩ 17 יולי 1914⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hhr/1914/07/17/01/article/22 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}}

After World War I a work group of Levi Eshkol{{Cite web |title=⁨המועצה החקלאית של "הפועל הצעיר' ⁩ — ⁨⁨הפועל הצעיר⁩ 10 יולי 1919⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hhr/1919/07/10/01/article/8 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} arrived to Kfar Urias and stayed there for about two years. At the beginning of 1920, a group of 14 workers stayed there{{Cite web |title=⁨_בארץ־ישראל ⁩ — ⁨⁨הצפירה⁩ 2 מרץ 1920⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hzf/1920/03/02/01/article/17 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} but later that year, they moved to Degania Bet on the occasion of the settlement of the landowners there.{{Cite web |title=⁨‭.'‬עבודתנולאית. חחק ⁩ — ⁨⁨הפועל הצעיר⁩ 12 נובמבר 1920⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hhr/1920/11/12/01/article/7 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}}

Later that year, representatives of five families from Bialystok Jews came to the place{{Cite web |title=⁨בצמנות ⁩ — ⁨⁨הצפירה⁩ 6 יולי 1920⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hzf/1920/07/06/01/article/9 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} and in 1921 eight families out of 30 people who were land owners. Another 11 of the land owners lived in the Land of Israel but not in the settlement and the rest were abroad. This situation meant that tax debts accumulated on the uncultivated lands.{{Cite web |title=⁨מכתבים למערכת ⁩ — ⁨⁨דבר⁩ 28 נובמבר 1926⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/dav/1926/11/28/01/article/34 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} Attempts to find Jewish tenants for the land to pay the tax were unsuccessful and there was an intention to lease the land to Arabs.{{Cite web |title=⁨ג* 1111 רו ⁩ — ⁨⁨דבר⁩ 28 דצמבר 1926⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/dav/1926/12/28/01/article/24 |access-date=2024-04-10 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}}

According to a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Kfar Uria had a population of 40 Jews.{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922|title = Palestine Census ( 1922)}} The census in 1931 recorded 10 Muslim inhabitants living in 2 houses.Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 21]

In the 1929 Palestine riots 300 Arab rioters from Jerusalem attacked Kfar Uria, with some local help, robbed and burned down the village. The inhabitants of the adjacent Arab villages for the most part were on good terms with the village's residents and many treated the moshav's association director, Baruch Yakimovsky, as their mukhtar (village chief).{{Cite web |title=⁨כפר אורי‭.. במאורעות תרפ"ט ⁩ — ⁨⁨הצפה⁩ 23 ספטמבר 1954⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hzh/1954/09/23/01/article/43 |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} He was on amicable terms with mukhtars in surrounding villages. The farmers of the area, both Jews and Arabs, cooperated and defended each other against raiding nomadic Bedouin.{{Cite web |title=⁨כפר אוריה ⁩ — ⁨⁨דבר⁩ 15 ספטמבר 1929⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/dav/1929/09/15/01/article/36 |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}}

Six Jewish families who had stayed behind were later smuggled out by the mukhtar of Beit Far via one of the ancient natural tunnels that crisscrosses the area. Yakimovsky managed, with the cooperation of some local mukhtars to work Kfar Uria's land for a few more years. In 1944, Jewish stonecutters from Kurdistan rebuilt the village{{cite book |page=101 |editor-last=Karsh |editor-first=Efriam |publisher=Taylor & Francis |location=London |title=Israel: The First Hundred Years |volume=I: Israel's Transition from Community to State |chapter=The Jews in Eretz-Israel/Palestine: From Traditional Peripherality to Modern Centrality |last1=Kark |first1=Ruth |last2=Glass |first2=Joseph B. |year=2000 |isbn=9780714680248 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1sacJ9eOyLUC&q=kfar+uriya&pg=PA101}} on the ruins of the original site, around 1.5 km north-west Khirbat Ism Allah, but not on village land.{{Citation|title=All That Remains|first1=Walid|last1=Khalidi|author-link=Walid Khalidi|year=1992|location=Washington D.C.|publisher=Institute for Palestine Studies|isbn=0-88728-224-5|page=296}}

File:סביב הבאר בכפר-אוריה-JNF003150.jpeg|Kfar Uria village well 1912

File:כפר אוריה - מראה כללי.-JNF034953.jpeg|Kfar Uria 1945

File:Beit JIz 1942.jpg|Kfar Uria 1942 1:20,000

File:Latrun 1945.jpg|Kfar Uria 1945 1:250,000

In March 1947, an Arab shepherd was killed by gunfire in the moshav's fields after shepherds from Bayt Jiz came onto the fields of the village with their flocks and a crowd threatened the Notrim.{{Cite web |title=⁨ערבי גהרג בקטטה ⁩ — ⁨⁨דבר⁩ 28 מרץ 1947⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/dav/1947/03/28/01/article/13 |access-date=2024-03-26 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} On January 10, 1948, a convoy of Hish personnel traveling from the village towards Hulda was attacked by Arabs from Beit Far, two of the defenders in the convoy were killed by gunfire. The next day, on January 11, the village was attacked by a mob of Arabs. The defenders launched a counterattack on the Arabs in Khirbet Beit Far. The estimates say that 25 Arab attackers were killed during the attack, among them members of the Arab Legion and Arab policemen.{{Cite web |title=⁨נהרגו 25 מתולופי כפר-איריה ⁩ — ⁨⁨דבר⁩ 13 ינואר 1948⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/dav/1948/01/13/01/article/33 |access-date=2024-03-26 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} Haganah guards murdered without provocation an Arab peasant couple near the village soon after, in February of that year.{{cite book |last=Morris |first=Benny |author-link=Benny Morris |year=2008 |title=1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War |publisher=Yale University Press |location=New Haven, Connecticut |page=80 |isbn=9780300145243 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CC7381HrLqcC}}

A third attempt to settle the area was undertaken in 1949,{{Cite web |title=⁨1 אז_1ר אז_?ר _ועניניו 1 = ? ⁩ — ⁨⁨דבר⁩ 20 מרץ 1950⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/dav/1950/03/20/01/article/160 |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}}{{Cite web |title=⁨11ישברת באיזרר ההר ⁩ — ⁨⁨הצפה⁩ 29 דצמבר 1953⁩ — הספרייה הלאומית של ישראל │ עיתונים |url=https://www.nli.org.il/he/newspapers/hzh/1953/12/29/01/article/36 |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=www.nli.org.il |language=he}} when a moshav was established on the site. The village name is similar to that of Khirbet Cafarorie, a ruin located south - west of the village, which had a rock-hewn winepress, a mosaic and burial caves. {{citation needed|date=August 2009}}

The village center features an old Khan, which once hosted the agricultural training workers, including A. D. Gordon. The Khan structure remains to this day at the heart of the community, but it requires renovations and therefore closed to visitors. {{citation needed|date=August 2009}}

Between 2009 and 2011 a new neighborhood was built and populated with 69 new houses and families.{{citation needed|date=August 2009}}

In 2013, an archaeological survey was conducted at the site by Irina Zilberbod on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).Israel Antiquities Authority, [http://www.antiquities.org.il/m_digs_eng.aspx?shana=2013 Excavators and Excavations Permit for Year 2013], Survey Permit # A-6717

In 1970, Israeli artist Avraham Ofek created a mural for the community center at Kfar Uria.{{cite news |last=Ashkenazi |first=Eli |title=Wall of Rot: Historic Murals Neglected for Years |url=https://www.haaretz.com/historic-israeli-murals-left-to-rot-1.5156962 |newspaper=Haaretz |date=September 7, 2012 |access-date=May 2, 2019}}

• Israeli art

{{Reflist}}

{{Mateh Yehuda Regional Council}}

{{Jewish villages depopulated during the 1929 Palestine riots}}

Category:Moshavim

Category:Populated places established in 1912

Category:Populated places established in 1944

Category:Populated places established in 1949

Category:Populated places in Jerusalem District

Category:1912 establishments in the Ottoman Empire

Category:1929 Palestine riots

Category:Polish-Jewish culture in Israel