Har Halutz officially known as Halutz is a communal settlement

Communal settlement (Israel)

A community settlement is a type of town in Israel. While in an ordinary town anyone may buy property, in a community settlement the town's residents, who are organized in a cooperative, can veto a sale of a house or a business to an undesirable buyer....

 in the central Galilee

Galilee

Galilee , is a large region in northern Israel which overlaps with much of the administrative North District of the country. Traditionally divided into Upper Galilee , Lower Galilee , and Western Galilee , extending from Dan to the north, at the base of Mount Hermon, along Mount Lebanon to the...

 in northern Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. Har Halutz is located in the rocky terrain of Gush Tefen and belongings to the Misgav Regional Council

Misgav Regional Council

The Misgav Regional Council is a regional council in the Galilee region in northern Israel. The regional council is home to 22,000 people, and comprises 35 small towns, mostly community settlements but also several Kibbutzim and Moshavim. The population of 29 of these is primarily Jewish, and 6...

.

Har Halutz is a communal village designed for "free enterprise" living (as opposed to collective economic organization found in kibbutzim and moshavim). For livelihood, members work in nearby towns or create new employment opportunities on or near the site. Har Halutz has two office buildings with small offices that it rents to members requiring office space. The community synagogue provides services, festival activities and lifecycle celebrations.

Communal life at Har Halutz centers around holiday celebrations. Families take turns organizing the holiday activities and are given a free hand to create a memorable event for the entire community.

History

Har Halutz was originally settled by a Gar'in (dedicated group) that was established in the U.S. during the early 1980s under the auspices of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism

Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism

The Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism is the organizational branch of Progressive Judaism in Israel. It currently has around 30 communities around the state of Israel including two kibbutzim, Yahel and Lotan, Israel....

 (Reform Movement). The nine families who moved up to the location in 1985 consisted of a mix of English speaking immigrants and native Israelis. Through the years Har Halutz has continued to attract an interesting mix of families from around the world, although the majority of new families are native Israelis.

The Master Plan for Har Halutz calls for 330 single family detached homes located in approximately six neighborhoods. These neighborhoods surround a core service center that currently includes a day care center, kindergarten, two office buildings, a youth center and a combined synagogue/community center. As of May 2007, there are around 80 families living in the settlement.

Just west of the town is the hill named Har Halutz. Archaeologists say that the mountain hasn't had a permanent settlement since the days of the Second Temple. Nearby, an ancient earth-filled stone wall was found.

Geography and Climate

The nearby Mount Halutz is 798 meters high. Har Halutz itself is about 700 meters high.
Har Halutz has a hot summer Mediterranean climate

Mediterranean climate

A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...

. On average, snow falls about once a year. Average annual precipitation is around 800 mm, falling almost entirely between October and May.