Ashdot Ya'akov (, lit. Ya'akov Rapids) was a kibbutz in northern Israel. It was founded in 1924 by a kvutza of Hashomer members from Latvia on the land which is today Gesher. It was named after the rapids of the nearby Yarmouk River and James "Ya'akov" Armand de Rothschild. Between 1933 and 1935 the kibbutz moved north-east of its original location, onto land which had been bought by the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association. However, in 1953, as a result of the split in the HaKibbutz HaMeuhad movement, the kibbutz was split in two;