Beit Nekofa ( he, בֵּית נְקוֹפָה) is a moshav in the

Jerusalem District The Jerusalem District ( he, מחוז ירושלים; ar, منطقة القدس) is one of the six administrative districts of Israel. The district capital is Jerusalem. The Jerusalem District has a land area of 652 km2. The population of ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Located in the Jerusalem Corridor, about 10 km west of central

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, next to Highway 1 and the , between

Mevaseret Zion Mevaseret Zion ( he, מְבַשֶּׂרֶת צִיּוֹן, literal meaning: Herald of Zion – Jerusalem) is a suburb of Jerusalem with the administrative status of a local council. Mevaseret Zion is composed of two distinct older townships, Mao ...

and

Kiryat Ye'arim ( he, קִרְיַת יְעָרִים), also known as Telz-Stone, is an strictly Orthodox town in the Jerusalem District of Israel. It is located in the approximate area of an ancient place mentioned in the Bible, from which it takes its name. ...

, south of

Kiryat Anavim Kiryat Anavim ( he, קִרְיַת עֲנָבִים, ''lit.'' City of Grapes) is a kibbutz in the Judean Hills of Israel. It was the first kibbutz established in the Judean Hills. It is located west of Jerusalem, and falls under the jurisdiction o ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In it had a population of . BeitNekofaOct282021

Etymology

Beit Nekofa's name may be based on the name of an ancient town, Nukveta ( he, נוּקְבְתָא) of Benjamin, mentioned in the

Talmud The Talmud (; he, , Talmūḏ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law ('' halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the ce ...

, from which the ancestors of Rabbi Judah haNasi are said to have come from. Nukveta is from the Hebrew word , ''Nikba'', or tunnel. According to

Zev Vilnay Zev Vilnay ( he, זאב וילנאי, 12 June 1900 – 21 January 1988) was an Israeli geographer, author and lecturer. Biography Zev Vilnay was born as Volf Vilensky in Kishinev, Russian Empire (now in Moldova). He immigrated to Palestine with ...

, Beit Nekofa was mentioned in the

Jerusalem Talmud The Jerusalem Talmud ( he, תַּלְמוּד יְרוּשַׁלְמִי, translit=Talmud Yerushalmi, often for short), also known as the Palestinian Talmud or Talmud of the Land of Israel, is a collection of rabbinic notes on the second-century ...

as the place of residence of a family of

Kohanim Kohen ( he, , ''kōhēn'', , "priest", pl. , ''kōhănīm'', , "priests") is the Hebrew word for "priest", used in reference to the Aaronic priesthood, also called Aaronites or Aaronides. Levitical priests or ''kohanim'' are traditionally be ...

. The Hebrew root of the name is ''Nakaf'' (, taken from

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...

17:6), referring to the collection of olives by means of hitting the tree, as opposed to harvest by hand (the Hebrew root ''Masak''). In Arabic, ''Naqb'' means (mountain) passage. An Arab village,

Bayt Naqquba Bayt Naqquba ( ar, بيت نقّوبة, he, בית נקובא, also spelled Bait Naqquba) was a Palestinian village in British Mandate Palestine, located 9.5 kilometers west of Jerusalem, near Abu Ghosh. Before Palmach and Haganah troops occup ...

, existed in the same location until the 1948 Arab–Israeli War when the area came under Israeli control and the villagers were expelled. After the end of the war, the residents were not allowed to return to their village, but they were allowed later, in 1962, to establish a new village,

Ein Naqquba Ein Naqquba ( ar, عين نقوبا, he, עֵין נַקוּבָּא) is an Arab village in central Israel. Located west of Jerusalem, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In it had a population of .. History The v ...

, on the opposite side of Highway 1.

History

Beit Nekofa was founded in August 1949 by seven families who

immigrated Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, and ...

to Israel from

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

. The Neveh Ilan-Beit Nekofa area was devastated by fire in the summer of 1996. Two thousand dunams of forest and dozens of buildings in

and Beit Nekofa were destroyed or damaged in the blaze. Beit Nekofa runs a bronze foundry that employs many Arabs from the surrounding villages.Give and Take
The Jerusalem Post, 17 August 2001

Gallery

File:BeitNekofaFeb202023 04.jpg, The upper, northern, part of Beit Nekofa File:BeitNekofaFeb202023 03.jpg, The lower, southern, part of Beit Nekofa

References

{{Authority control Moshavim Populated places established in 1949 Populated places in Jerusalem District Yugoslav-Jewish culture in Israel 1949 establishments in Israel