Ottoman-period village of Harbaj During the
Ottoman period there was a
Muslim village called
Harbaj at this place. In 1162 A.H. (~1748 CE) it was fortified by
Daher al-Umar, and traces of the wall still existed in the late 19th century. The village appeared as
El Harchieh on the map that
Pierre Jacotin compiled in 1799. In 1875,
Victor Guérin found here about 30 inhabited houses. In the centre of the village was a large
well, partly filled. In 1881, the
Palestine Exploration Fund's
Survey of Western Palestine described El Harbaj as "a small
adobe village, on the plain, with a well to the north and olives to the east."
British Mandate period Harbaj village In the
1922 census of Palestine conducted by the
British Mandate authorities, Harbaj had a population 177, all Muslims.
Kfar Hasidim and the end of Harbaj Kfar Hasidim was founded in 1924 by two groups of
Polish Hasidic immigrants of the
Fourth Aliyah, followers of
Rabbi Yehezkel Taub and Rabbi Israel Hoffstein, the rabbis of Yablono and
Kozienice. They bought land east of Haifa Bay with the help of Rabbi Yeshayahu Shapira of
Hapoel Hamizrachi and established Nahalat Ya’akov and Avodat Yisrael, which later merged into Kfar Hasidim. In 1925 the
Palestine Jewish Colonization Association purchased 70
feddans in Harbaj from Alexander Sursuk, as part of a
larger series of land purchases from the
Sursuk family of
Beirut. At the time, there were 50 families living there. From 1931, and lasting several years, the Jewish Agency struggled to evict the tenant farmers from Harbaj, from the land which was to become Kfar Hasidim. In the
1931 census, Kfar Hassidim had a population of 420, all Jews, in a total of 104 houses. By the
1945 statistics, Kfar Hasidim had 980 residents, all Jewish. In 1935, Makhouly visited
Tal Harbaj on behalf of the
Department of Antiquities. He noted that: "the portion of the outer wall on the eastern top of the site was demolished and all stones from it were taken away." File:כפר חסידים - בניה.-JNF043173.jpeg|Kfar Hasidim first houses 1925 File:בנין בתים כפר-חסידים-JNF004225.jpeg|Kfar Hasidim 1925 File:כפר חסידים - הכבשן-JNF043962.jpeg|Kfar Hasidim lime kiln 1925 Image:Early days in Kfar Hasidim.jpg|Nahalat Ya'akov, 1926 File:כפר חסידים - צילום מן האויר-JNF030644.jpeg|Kfar Hasidim 1929 File:כפר חסידים - מראה כללי-JNF029045.jpeg|Kfar Hasidim 1930 File:Jewish colonies. K'far Hassidim, synagogue exterior. matpc.16838.jpg|Kfar Hasidim synagogue, 1934-1939 File:כפר חסידים - בחצר המשק-JNF037181.jpeg|Kfar Hasidim 1937
State of Israel In 1950,
Kfar Hasidim Bet was established nearby by non-agricultural residents of Kfar Hasidim.
Yityish Titi Aynaw, an Ethiopian Jew who won the
Miss Israel beauty pageant in 2013, was a graduate of the school. The
immigrant absorption center in Kfar Hasidim is the first stop for members of the
Bnei Menashe community from North-Eastern India who settle in Israel. ==Prominent residents==