Rishpon

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RISHPON

RISHPON (Heb. רִשְׁפּוֹן), moshav in central Israel N. of *Herzliyyah. Rishpon was founded in 1936, in the framework of the Thousand Families Settlement Project (see *Israel, State of: Settlement), by immigrants from Eastern Europe. In 1970 Rishpon had 447 inhabitants, increasing to 540 in the mid-1990s and 794 in 2002 after expansion. Its economy was based on citrus groves, fruit plantations, flowers, vegetables, poultry and horse stables. The name is assumedly historical, and appears in the form "Rishponah" in an inscription of Tiglath Pileser iii dating back to the year 732 b.c.e. It may be connected with the Canaanite deity Reshef.

[Efraim Orni]