Menahemia ( he, מְנַחֶמְיָה) is a village in the Jordan Valley in north-eastern
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 near
Highway 90 between
Beit She'an
Beit She'an ( he, בֵּית שְׁאָן '), also Beth-shean, formerly Beisan ( ar, بيسان ), is a town in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. The town lies at the Beit She'an Valley about 120 m (394 feet) below se ...
and
Tzemah Junction 5 km south of
Tzemah, it falls under the jurisdiction of
Valley of Springs Regional Council
Emek HaMa'ayanot Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית עמק המעיינות, ''Mo'atza Azorit Emek HaMa'ayanot'', lit. ''Valley of the Springs Regional Council'') is a regional council (Israel), regional council in the Northern Distric ...
. With an area of 6,000
dunam
A dunam ( Ottoman Turkish, Arabic: ; tr, dönüm; he, דונם), also known as a donum or dunum and as the old, Turkish, or Ottoman stremma, was the Ottoman unit of area equivalent to the Greek stremma or English acre, representing the amount ...
s, the village had a population of in .
History
The village was established on 23–26 December 1901 as a
moshava
A moshava ( he, מושבה, plural: ''moshavot'' , lit. ''colony'') was a form of rural Jewish settlement in Ottoman Palestine, established by the members of the Old Yishuv since late 1870s and during the first two waves of Jewish Zionist immi ...
under the name ''Milhamia'' ( he, מלחמיה) by the five first families on land purchased by the
Jewish Colonisation Association
The Jewish Colonisation Association (JCA or ICA, Yiddish ייִק"אַ), in America spelled Jewish Colonization Association, is an organisation created on September 11, 1891, by Baron Maurice de Hirsch. Its aim was to facilitate the mass emigratio ...
(ICA) in the
Jordan Valley
The Jordan Valley ( ar, غور الأردن, ''Ghor al-Urdun''; he, עֵמֶק הַיַרְדֵּן, ''Emek HaYarden'') forms part of the larger Jordan Rift Valley. Unlike most other river valleys, the term "Jordan Valley" often applies just to ...
, and was the first
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
settlement of its time in that region. It was renamed Menahemia in 1921 after the father of
High Commissioner of
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel
Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, (6 November 1870 – 5 February 1963) was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931 to 1935.
He was the first nominally-practising Jew to serve as a Cabinet minister and to beco ...
.
The village attracted new immigrants from
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
during its nascent years, but because of cultural differences with the older residents, the Yemenites moved out and settled in the Shaʿaraim neighborhood of
Rehovot
Rehovot ( he, רְחוֹבוֹת ''Rəḥōvōt'', ar, رحوڤوت ''Reḥūfūt'') is a city in the Central District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. In it had a population of .
Etymology
Israel Belkind, founder of the Bilu movement, ...
.
The Archives of the History of Rehovot
, Yemenite immigrants to Menahemia (Hebrew)
File:Al-Dalhamiyya in VanDeVeldeMap5 (cropped).jpg, The area in 1858; the area of Menahemia was known as el-Bukaa Medhami, which was south of al-'Ubaydiyya
Al-'Ubaydiyya ( ar, العبيدية) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Tiberias Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on March 3, 1948. It was located 11 km south of Tiberias, sit ...
, west of al-Dalhamiyya, and north of Jisr el-Majami
Jisr el-Majami or Jisr al-Mujamieh ( ar, جسر المجامع, Jisr al-Majami, Meeting Bridge or "The bridge of the place of assembling", and he, גֶּשֶׁר, ''Gesher'', lit. "Bridge") is an ancient stone bridge, possibly of Roman origin, o ...
File:מנחמיה - מראה כללי.-JNF045300.jpeg, Menahemia 1920
File:מנחמיה - בגורן של המושבה עובדים פועלים ערבים ועוזרים לאיכרים המשתמשים במכונות חקלאיות חדישית-JNF036348.jpeg, Arab labourers threshing, Menahemia, 1947
Economy
Before World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, a regional pharmacy was established in Menahemia. Other industries included a quarry, where they quarried raw materials for the Nesher
Nesher ( he, נֶשֶׁר) is a city in the Haifa District of Israel. In it had a population of . It was founded in 1923 as a workers town for the Nesher Cement factory, the first cement factory in the country.
History
Nesher was founded in ...
cement factory near Haifa, and a gypsum manufacturing plant. There was also a museum for the medical history of the region, and the history of Menahemia and Naharayim
Naharayim ( he, נַהֲרַיִים literally "Two rivers"), historically the Jisr Majami area ( ar, جسر المجامع literally "Meeting bridge" area), where the Yarmouk River flows into the Jordan River, was named by the Palestine Ele ...
.
Menahemia had its own local council from 1951 until 1 January 2006 when jurisdiction over the village was transferred to Beit She'an Valley Regional Council
Emek HaMa'ayanot Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית עמק המעיינות, ''Mo'atza Azorit Emek HaMa'ayanot'', lit. ''Valley of the Springs Regional Council'') is a regional council in the Northern District of Israel that encompass ...
.
See also
*Benny Shalita
Benny Shalita ( he, בני שליטא, born 13 November 1934) is an Israeli former politician, who served as a member of the Knesset for Likud between 1981 and 1988, and as mayor of Menahemia from 1956 until 1992.
Biography
Born in Haifa during ...
References
{{Authority control
Villages in Israel
Populated places established in 1901
Populated places in Northern District (Israel)
1901 establishments in the Ottoman Empire
Yemeni-Jewish culture in Israel