Kfar Yehoshua

Near the village there is an archaeological site called Tell esh Shemmâm. During Ottoman era a Muslim village was found there. The meaning of the name is "Mound of the Melon/Colocynth".Palmer, 1881, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/117/mode/1up 117] Moshe Dayan mentioned it as an example of "there is not one place built in this country which did not have a former Arab population".cited in Rogan and Shlaim, 2001, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=oi8cmbTa6qMC&pg=PA207 207]

In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Tel esh Shemmam as a small artificial mound.Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. [https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp01conduoft#page/353/mode/1up 353]

In the 1922 census of Palestine conducted by the British authorities, Tal al-Shammam had 71 inhabitants; 70 Muslims and 1 Melkite Christian.Barron, 1923, Table XI, Sub-district of Haifa, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n35/mode/1up 33]Barron, 1923, Table XVI, p. [https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n51/mode/1up 49] A nearby swamp called el-Matba'ah was believed to provide relief from rheumatism, nervous pains, and sterility.{{cite book | author = Tewfik Canaan | title = Mohammedan Saints and Sanctuaries in Palestine | publisher = Ariel Publishing House | location = Jerusalem | year = 1927 | page = 111}}

The area was acquired by the Jewish community as part of the Sursock Purchase. The moshav was founded in 1927,{{cite news|last=Levy|first=Eyal|script-title=he:בכפר יהושע המומים מההתאבדות של כוכב הריאליטי|url=http://www.nrg.co.il/online/54/ART2/333/285.html?hp=54&cat=872&loc=9|accessdate=5 February 2012|newspaper=Nrg Maariv|date=3 February 2012|language=Hebrew|trans-title=Kfar Yehoshua residents stunned by suicide of reality star|quote=כפר יהושע הוקם ב-1927 ונמצא בעמק יזרעאל, שני קילומטרים דרומית לרמת ישי.}}

based on an agreement reached in 1923 at a Histadrut committee meeting in Nahalal. In 1924, during the Shavuot holidays, the council met in order to clarify the ideological goal of combining the idea of the kibbutz and the moshav. In 1924, a contract for the purchase of land in the western Jezreel Valley was signed under the auspices of Yehoshua Hankin. A tract of 8,000 dunams was purchased for 25,000 Egyptian pounds from the heirs of the Twsiny family (partners of the Sursocks). The village at the time was the home of 50 families.[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/ShawSursockTable.png List of villages sold by Sursocks and their partners to the Zionists since the British occupation of Palestine]. Palestine Commission on the Disturbances of August 1929, Exhibit No. 71, minutes of evidence page 1074. In January 1927, the committee voted to name the village for Hankin. On March 3, 1927, the wooden hut of the former tenants of the railway station in Tel Shamam was brought to the hill of the village and the first families took up residence there.[http://richardkauffmann.com/wordpress/articles/all-roads-lead-to-kfar-yehoshua/All Roads Lead to Kfar Yehoshua, Elie Shamir]{{Dead link|date=February 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

Kfar Yehoshua was one of 140 agricultural settlements designed by the German-Jewish architect Richard Kauffmann.{{cite news |last=Sonder |first=Ines |title=He Planned Afula and Nahalal, but Who Remembers? |date=April 10, 2006 |url=https://www.haaretz.com/1.4900465 |newspaper=Haaretz |access-date=August 4, 2019}}

In the 1931 census Kfar Yehoshua had a population of 277; 32 Muslim and 245 Jews, in a total of 53 inhabited houses.Mills, 1932, p. [https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas 98]

In the 1945 statistics, the population was 620, all Jewish.Department of Statistics, 1945, p. [http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p14.jpg 14]Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. Village Statistics, April, 1945. Quoted in Hadawi, 1970, p. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Haifa/Page-048.jpg 48]

File:כפר יהושע - צילום אויר-JNF030620.jpeg|Kfar Yehoshus 1929

File:כפר יהושוע - צילום אויר-JNF030567.jpeg|Kfar Yehoshua 1939

File:כפר יהושוע - צילום אויר-JNF030568.jpeg|Kfar Yehoshua 1946 station in foreground

File:כפר יהושע - תחנת הרכבת-JNF020537.jpeg|Kfar Yehoshua railway station 1930

A train station in Kfar Yehoshua operated for close to fifty years on the Jezreel Valley Railway, from the beginning of the 20th century to 1948. Seven stone buildings from this period have been restored by the Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites,{{dubious|date=July 2016}} and original railroad tracks have been returned to the site.{{cite news |last=Gilad |first=Moshe |title=In the Footsteps of Israel's Founding Fathers |newspaper=Haaretz |date=August 15, 2012 |url=https://www.haaretz.com/galilee-guides-bring-history-to-life-1.5284228 |access-date=August 4, 2018}}

• Gabi Gazit
• Tomer Bar

{{Reflist}}

{{Refbegin}}

• {{cite book | editor =Barron, J.B. | title = Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922 |url=https://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922 |publisher = Government of Palestine | year = 1923}}
• {{cite book|last1=Conder|first1=C.R.|authorlink1=Claude Reignier Conder|last2=Kitchener|first2=H.H.|authorlink2=Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|year=1881|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp01conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology|location=London|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund|volume=1}}
• {{cite book|title=Village Statistics, April, 1945 |url=http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/Hebrew/library/Pages/BookReader.aspx?pid=856390|author=Department of Statistics|year=1945|publisher=Government of Palestine}}
• {{cite book|title=Village Statistics of 1945: A Classification of Land and Area ownership in Palestine|url=http://www.palestineremembered.com/Articles/General-2/Story3150.html|first=S.|last=Hadawi|author-link=Sami Hadawi|year=1970|publisher=Palestine Liberation Organization Research Center}} (p.[http://www.palestineremembered.com/download/VillageStatistics/Table%20I/Haifa/Page-049.jpg 49])
• {{cite book | editor = Mills, E. | title = Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas |url=https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas | publisher = Government of Palestine | location = Jerusalem | year = 1932}}
• {{cite book|last=Palmer|first=E.H.|author-link=Edward Henry Palmer|year=1881|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund}}
• {{cite book|title=The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oi8cmbTa6qMC |first1=E.|last1=Rogan|authorlink1=Eugene Rogan|first2=A.|last2=Shlaim|authorlink2=Avi Shlaim|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2001|isbn=0-521-79476-5}}

{{Refend}}

{{Commons category}}

• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 5: [http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8368 IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.05.jpg Wikimedia commons]
• [https://haifa-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/primo-explore/collectionDiscovery?vid=HAU&inst=972HAI_MAIN&collectionId=81164644550002791&lang=en_US Kfar Yehoshua Collection] on the Digital collections of Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library, University of Haifa

{{Jezreel Valley Regional Council}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Moshavim

Category:Populated places established in 1927

Category:Populated places in Northern District (Israel)

Category:1927 establishments in Mandatory Palestine