PEKI'IN

family of Mustarabi Jews in Peki'in, 1930s, courtesy, Wikipedia

Peki'in is, today, a mainly Druze town with local council status in Israel's Northern District. It is located a few miles east of Ma'alot-Tarshiha in the Upper Galilee. In 2019 it had a population of 5,893.

According to tradition, the Jewish community of Peki'in has maintained a presence there since the Second Temple period, with an interruption during the 1936–1939 Arab riots. The antiquity, mystery, and wonder surrounding the Jews of Peki'in were added to by the presence of Jewish fellaheen and their claim of being the last group of Jews who were never exiled. These were part of the community of Mustarabi Jews who, along with the Samaritans of the Shechem area, were the true indigenous Palestinians.

In the time of Joshua, the site of Peki’in was allotted to the tribe of Naphtali. Since that time, the border between Israel and the neighboring Phoenician city states would often change. The village Baca in “The Jewish War” is thought to be Peki'in and according to its author Josephus Flavius, it marked the border between the kingdom of Herod Agrippa II, and Tyre. According to the Talmud, Rabbi Joshua ben Hananiah headed a Beth Midrash there, and Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai and his son Rabbi Elazar ben Shimon, hid in a cave from the Romans for 13 years. Shimon bar Yochai went on to teach in the city for many years thereafter. The Talmudic scholars Rabbi Abba Oshaya of Tiria and Rabbi Yose of Pekiin are buried in the town; their gravesites have become a place of Jewish pilgrimage ever since.

The presence of a Druze community in the village in the early Mamluk period is attested by the geographer Shams al-Din al-Dimashqi (1257–1327). The Jews of Peki'in are first mentioned in the travel book of R. Moses Basola (1522). He refers to them as "fallaḥim" ("workers of the land"), engaged in agriculture and the breeding of silkworm. Responsa of the Safed rabbis of the 16^th century dealing with mitzvot to be fulfilled only in the Land of Israel – the priestly tithes, the levitical tithes, and the Sabbatical Year, all of which concern Jewish farm workers in Galilee – also testify to the existence of Jewish agriculture in Peki’in. From time to time groups of Jews engaged in commerce and the leasing and tilling of lands; other groups engaged in the study of Torah and the Zohar "under the carob tree of R. Simeon b. Yoḥai." Peki'in was also a summer resort for urban Jews, especially for those from Tiberias. The Jews of the towns sought refuge there when plagues broke out. In the mid-16^th century, Pekiin had a Jewish population of 79 households. It is said some Kohanitic families emigrated from Kafr 'Inan, possibly in the late 16th century, and also from Alma such as the well-known Almani family. In 1602 R. Joseph Trani of Safed visited Peki'in to instruct the local Jews, who were cultivating mulberries for silkworms. In 1742, the kabbalist R. Ḥayyim Attar, who had just arrived in Israel along with his disciples, lived there for about two months. After the severe earthquakes of 1759, many of the victims from Safed fled there including the son of Rabbi Jacob of Vilna, who was from the group led by R. Judah he-Ḥasid, which had emigrated to Israel in 1700. The rabbis of Safed also established a yeshivah for some time in the village. R. Joseph Sofer, author of Edut bi-Yhosef, lived and died in Peki'in. R. Reuben Satanov, author of Ahavat Ẓiyyon, also lived and studied the Zohar there. In 1783 some members of the hasidic aliyah from Russia and Poland established themselves there after leaving Safed and Jerusalem. The ancient synagogue, in active use since the Second Temple period, was destroyed by an earthquake in 1837 but was rebuilt to its present state in 1873. In 1875, French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village and wrote: "The population at present number 600—Druzes, United Greeks, Schismatic Greeks, and a few Jewish families, who descend from the ancient inhabitants of the country. Every year in the summer several hundreds of Jews come here from Tiberias to pass the hot season. Most of these Jews came originally from Europe, and are happy in finding here the last indigenous scions of the ancient national stock...". Peki’in and its Jews was also described in “Survey of Western Palestine” issued by the Palestine Exploration Fund.

During the Arab riots of 1929, Arab gangs often penetrated Peki’in causing all the local Jews, who had lived there since time immemorial, to flee, but they returned soon after. Between that time and the mid-30s, they occasionally sought work in the neighboring Jewish settlements. In 1936, a renewal of Arab riots finally ethnically cleansed the town of its Jews and they sought refuge in the town of Hadera. This time, most did not return after the violence, electing to remain in Hadera, calling themselves the “Hadera Diaspora”. Thus far, the Zinatis are the only family who returned, and this family has dwindled to one member. In the 1945 statistics, the Druze owned over 10,000 dunams of Pekiin land while the Jews managed to hold on to 189 dunams. In 1948 Peki'in was incorporated into Israel; part of the Arab inhabitants left, and Jews – new immigrants – were settled there. The ancient synagogue and the cemetery were renovated with the assistance of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, second president of Israel, and are considered historical sites. The traditional tombs of R. Oshayah of Tiria and R. Yose of Peki'in were also repaired. In 1955, the moshav Peki'in ha-Ḥadashah ("New Peki'in") was established above Ein Tiria. The new settlers arrived from Tangier, Fez, and Marrakesh. In July 2006, Peki'in was hit by Katyusha rockets launched by Hezbollah, causing significant damage to homes and orchards.

In 2011, the Israeli government approved an aid program of NIS 680 million ($184M) for housing, education and tourism upgrades in Peki'in and other Druze communities in northern Israel. The Druze Youth Movement in Israel, a movement with 19 branches around the country and a membership of 12,000, has its headquarters in Peki'in. The founder of the movement is Hamad Amar, an Israeli Druze member of the Knesset from Shfaram, who established it to pass on Druze heritage to the younger generation while developing a sense of national Israeli pride. Margalit Zinati, presently the last Mustarabi Jew in the town, has remained there to keep alive the memory of the town's vanishing Jewish heritage.