Kfar Saba

Kfar Saba (Hebrew: כְּפַר סָבָא [kfaʁˈsaba]), officially Kfar Sava [kfaʁ saˈva], is a city in the Sharon region, of the Central District of Israel. In 2019 it had a population of 110,456, making it the 16th-largest city in Israel. The population of Kfar Saba is nearly entirely Jewish.[1] The village of Kafr Saba was considered to be ancient Capharsaba, an important settlement during the Second Temple period in ancient Judea.[2][3] It is mentioned for the first time in the writings of Josephus, in his account of the attempt of Alexander Jannaeus to halt an invasion from the north led by Antiochus,[4] appears in the Talmud in connection to corn tithing and the Capharsaba sycamore fig tree.[2] The Jewish moshava of Kfar Saba was established in 1898, following the purchase of land from the Arab village of the same name. Acquiring 7,500 dunams (equivalent to 1,668 acres in Ottoman Palestine, where a dunam equals 900 square meters), the endeavor faced initial challenges: the land was desolate, neglected, and distant from other Jewish settlements. [5] Furthermore, the Ottoman pasha of Nablus, to whose governorate the land belonged, refused to give building permits, forcing the first settlers to live in huts made of clay and straw. They earned their living by growing almonds, grapes and olives. It was located approximately 3 km to the west of the Arab village of Kafr Saba, after which it was named. Despite attractive advertisements in Jerusalem and London, initial attempts to sell plots to private individuals were unsuccessful.[3] Starting in 1903, Jewish workers resided on the site of Kfar Saba.[6] A well was dug in 1906. Most of the manual laborers on the land were peasants from Qalqilya.[3]