YARDENAH

YARDENAH (Heb. יַרְדֵּנָה), moshav in northern Israel, 7 mi. (12 km.) N.E. of Beth-Shean, affiliated with Tenu'at ha-Moshavim. Yardenah was founded in the framework of the "town to country movement" in 1952 by laborers originating from Iraqi Kurdistan. The moshav, with 370 inhabitants in 1968, was outstanding among the Jewish settlements for the large size of its families. Ever since its founding Yardenah suffered from enemy attack and, in the period after the six-day war (1967), came under particularly frequent and heavy shelling from Jordanian artillery from beyond the border. Intensive field crops, especially cotton, constituted the prominent farming branch. In 2002 Yardenah's population was 439. The name is derived from the nearby Jordan River. (Efraim Orni)