The kibbutz was established on 20 October 1949 by members of Hashomer Hatzair who had immigrated from Czechoslovakia. It was named for Haviva Reik.[2] In 1951 it moved three kilometres east to its present location onto land that had belonged to the depopulated Palestinian Arab village of al-Jalama.[3]Sde Yitzhak was founded on the former site of Lehavot Haviva the following year.