PARDES ḤANNAH-KARKUR

PARDES ḤANNAH-KARKUR (Heb. פַּרְדֵּס חַנָּה־כַּרְכּוּר), predominantly rural community in the northern Sharon, Israel, about 4 mi. (7 km.) N.E. of Ḥaderah, created in 1969 through the amalgamation of Pardes Ḥannah and Karkur. Karkur was founded in 1913 by a group of English Jews, "Aḥuzzat London," on land acquired the year before by the Palestine Land Development Company and guarded by members of ha-shomer who remained and worked on the place, together with other Jewish laborers, until the 1920s. In 1919 building began, but a part of the English group arrived only in 1925–26. In 1927 Karkur already numbered 300 inhabitants, and the initially hard conditions improved after abundant groundwater was found. The moshav, based mainly on citrus, had 900 inhabitants in 1948; its population increased to 3,000 in 1952, but has since remained the same. Most inhabitants are from Eastern Europe; others are from Yemen. It is the site of a dew research station. Pardes Ḥannah was established in 1929 by the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association for the settlement of veteran farm laborers. In 1939 the moshavah was enlarged to include the neighboring village of Meged founded in 1933. During the 1930s, immigrants from Central Europe joined Pardes Ḥannah, some of whom erected the Tel Shalom quarter. In 1947 a housing project was set up named Neveh Asher, after Selig brodetsky . During World War II, the British authorities expropriated Pardes Ḥannah lands to build large military camps which after 1948 became two large ma'barot (immigrant transit camps), bringing the population from 2,350 inhabitants to over 10,000. When the ma'barot were closed down at the end of the 1950s, only some of their inhabitants remained and were transferred to local housing. The population figure then shrank to 7,500 but slowly rose again to 13,400 in 1970. The economy of Pardes Ḥannah-Karkur was based on highly intensive and fully irrigated farming as well as on industry. There were several large schools, including the agricultural high school of the Farmers' Union (Hitaḥadut ha-Ikkarim) and No'am, the combined yeshivah high school. In the mid-1990s the population of Pardes Hannah-Karkur was approximately 19,400, rising to 28,800 in 2002. The local council's area of jurisdiction extends over 9 sq. mi. (23 sq. km.). Pardes Hannah-Karkur serves as an urban center for the region, its economy now based on services, commerce, industry (wood and building materials, agricultural machinery, and plastics), and agriculture (citrus groves, field crops and fruit orchards). "Pardes Ḥannah," meaning "Hannah's Citrus Grove," commemorates a cousin of Baron Edmond de rothschild . -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Ever-Hadani (ed.), Aḥuzzah Alef London-Karkur 1913–1968 (1969), with Eng. summ. (Efraim Orni / Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)