Menaḥemiyyah

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MENAḤEMIYYAH

MENAḤEMIYYAH (Heb. מְנַחֵמִיָּה), moshav in northern Israel with municipal council status, southwest of Lake Kinneret, affiliated with Ha-Iḥud ha-Ḥakla'i. Menaḥemiyyah was founded as a moshavah by the Jewish Colonization Association (ica) in 1902, as part of the *ica enterprise to establish villages in Galilee based on grain production. Its name is based both on the previous Arabic name of the site – Milḥmiyya – and the first name of Herbert *Samuel's father.

Menaḥemiyyah's progress was slow, and it suffered from the frequent attacks by Bedouins in the vicinity. In the 1920s, a gypsum quarry was opened nearby to supply the Haifa "Nesher" cement works. Later, World War ii veterans ("Ya'el") joined the first settlers. Following the Israel *War of Independence (1948), new immigrants, mainly from North Africa and Romania, settled in Menaḥemiyyah. In 1969 the moshav had 585 inhabitants; in the mid-1990s – 1,240; and in 2002 – 1,100 on an area of 2.3 sq. mi. (6 sq. km.).

[Efraim Orni /

Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]