Tel Mond

views updated

TEL MOND

TEL MOND (Heb. תֵּל מוֹנְד), moshavah with municipal council status in central Israel, in the southern Sharon, 6 mi. (10 km.) N. of Kefar Sava. Its area is about 3 sq. mi. (8 sq. km.). Tel Mond was founded in 1929 upon the initiative of Sir Alfred Mond (later Lord *Melchett), who planted large citrus groves and enlisted the participation of other British Jews through his Palestine Plantations Company. Tel Mond became the center for a group of smallholder villages (the "Tel Mond Bloc"). After 1948 many immigrants were absorbed there, partly from a *ma'barah (immigrant transit camp) which was later transformed into a permanent housing scheme. In 1954 Tel Mond received local council status. In 1970 the village had 3,060 inhabitants. Its economy was based principally on citriculture. By the mid-1990s its population had increased to 4,060, rising further to 7,260 in 2002. The majority of residents now worked outside the moshavah.

[Efraim Orni /

Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]