Yodfat

The second book of Kings mentions the town of Yatva standing in this place, and in the Talmud, Yodfat, a fortress from the time of Joshua. It was captured by the Assyrian king Tiglathpalasar in 732 BC. The settlement became most famous in connection with the events of the Judean War. It was the main fortress - the capital of Josephus Flavius, the last fortification, where he surrendered to the Roman commander Vespasian. Despite the fact that the city was well fortified and located on an inaccessible rock, after several weeks of siege, Yodfat fell.

In 1958, the core of the settlement was laid, consisting of the students of Dr. Joseph Shechter, the spiritual teacher of the Haifa school of Reali, he advocated Jewish spirituality generated by the building community. The core of the settlement, whose members are also called “Shekhteristy,” appeared on the settlement’s land in 1960. After some time, the majority of the community split off and began to practice various activities, including dancing and spiritual searching in groups, according to the teachings of Gurdjieff.

The founded settlement was named after the ancient settlement of the times of the Mishnah and Talmud, located about a kilometer south of it. The first building was the Yodfat observation tower, a wall was built around it and living rooms were like a castle.

Although the Yodfat community did not belong to the anthroposophical educational trend, this theory took hold of the settlement system. In 2003, the Oded School opened, an educational institution working on the anthroposophical theory of Waldorf, and in 2011 the school moved to its permanent location in Yodfat.

A large stocking plant was operating in the village, which closed after the Delta company bought it. In the second decade of the 21st century, more than one hundred families live in Yodfat. In the settlement there is a "Forest of monkeys" - a zoo, which is a fenced area where the monkeys move freely, and you can observe their natural behavior. There are also small businesses, a conservatory, shops and restaurants.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics of Israel , the population at the beginning of 2018 was 829 people ^[1] .