BET ALFA AND SYNAGOGUE

mosaic floor of the Bet Alfa Synagogue, courtesy, israel-in-photos.com

The ruins of the ancient Jewish town of Bet Alfa was discovered quite by accident. In 1922, a group of Jews from Czechoslovakia and Germany founded Kibbutz Hefzibah. Its name derived from the Bible, where God speaks about his love for Israel (Isaiah 62:4). In 1928, during irrigation construction on the property of the kibbutz, the floor of the Bet Alfa synagogue was uncovered and excavations began early the following year. The town itself was mentioned in the Talmud but in addition to that, and according to what was uncovered, archaeologists and historians surmise that the town dates to at least the late Roman/early Byzantine periods (4^th - 7^th centuries). Its synagogue was, apparently, built during the reign of Emperor Justinian I (518-527) by the artisans Marianos and his son Hanina who also built the nearby Bet She’an synagogue. It was funded by communal donations. Later, the town was taken over by Arabs, but it remained largely in ruins and abandoned for over millennia during which time, much of the site was buried in dust.   

Shortly after the founding of Hefzibah, the modern Kibbutz Bet Alfa was founded by Jews from Poland belonging to the socialist Hashomer Hatzair movement. It was the first kibbutz founded by members of that movement and was located adjacent to the eastern side of Hefzibah making it the easternmost village in the area.

In 1929, excavations on the synagogue began under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, with permission from the Palestinian government’s Department of Antiquities, and led by Israeli archaeologists, Eliezar Sukenik and Nahman Avigad. (In 1962, a second round of excavations covered the surrounding area.) Much later after the discovery of the synagogue, the site, and the surrounding property became a national park. Maps show the synagogue almost at the border between the two kibbutzim, Hefzibah and its namesake Bet Alfa, but at closer look, it is clearly on Hefzibah land, not, as many assume, on the property of the Kibbutz Bet Alfa.

The mosaic floor, as well as some of the exterior were found to be in surprisingly good condition enabling archaeologists and historians to do a theoretical reconstruction of the entire synagogue. The floor itself depicts the lunar Hebrew months as they correspond to the signs of the zodiac. Two inscriptions were found at the entrance to the hall indicating when, and by whom, the synagogue was built. Symbolic animals are depicted on either side of the inscriptions: a lion on the right and a bull on the left. The three mosaic panels in the center of the hall depict (from north to south): (1) The Offering of Isaac, (2) The Signs of the Zodiac, and (3) The Ark of the Synagogue. The simple but strong style of the mosaic pavement represents a folk art that appears to have developed among the Jewish villagers of Galilee.  

In August of 1929, during yet another Arab “uprising”, the kibbutz Bet Alfa was attacked and its fields destroyed. But the kibbutz survived and continued its development. Since the 1930s, one of its members, Hanka Lazarson, was engaged in vegetable breeding; including: cucumber, onion, garlic, aubergine and cauliflower. Between 1931 and 1936 she developed a breed of cucumbers that came to be known as the "Bet Alfa Cucumber". The breed became highly popular worldwide due to its excellent taste and high yield. The vegetable breeding program continued successfully for the next 30 years, constantly improving various varieties.

During the 1936 Arab “uprising”, the Arabs again set fire to Bet Alfa’s surrounding fields. On April 1, 1948 during the War of Independence, Bet Alfa was attacked by Arab mortar fire but they withdrew as a platoon from the 1st parachute battalion of the British 6th Airborne Division approached. After the war, the Gilboa Educational Institute was established in the northern part of the kibbutz. The institute, which served as a school for the surrounding area, offered boarding and had an array of sports facilities and workshops enabling professional training. It was closed in 2003 but still serves as an educational center.

Since 1966, Special Purpose Vehicles, owned by Bet Alfa Technologies (BAT), began their manufacture of fire trucks, later expanding to other forms of such vehicles, especially for the purpose of non-lethal riot control (such as water cannons). These would be sold to more than 30 countries but sometimes, some of these 30 countries would have questionable human rights records. According to The Guardian, a British paper usually associated with vile anti-Semitic propaganda, BAT "developed a profitable industry selling anti-riot vehicles" to the apartheid regime in South Africa "for use against protesters in the black townships". According to an Israeli legislator, "Bet Alfa cars usually end up saving the lives of demonstrators. We would be happy if Saddam Hussein and the Syrians used them. I would be happy if the Chinese in Tiananmen Square had used only water cannons."

During the 2006 Lebanon War, Bet Alfa took in evacuees from the border villages that had been under rocket attack by Hezbollah militants from southern Lebanon. After the war an absorption center for Ethiopian immigrants was set up. Some 600 people are offered boarding, Hebrew language courses, and are prepared for integration in Israeli society.

Other sites in and around Bet Alfa aside from those mentioned above include: "Ahuzat Shoshana", a farmhouse built on a hilltop just north and in sight of Bet Alfa, right next to the ruins of the Crusader castle of Belvoir; the kibbutz dairy, first in Israel to use robotic milking technology; Bet Alfa Home Furniture which is also a recognized supplier for Israel's Ministry of Defense; the Bet Alfa Guesthouses; Mount Gilboa; Harod Valley and Stream to the west; Beit She'an Valley to the east; the northern Jordan Valley; Gan HaShlosha National Park; the kibbutzim Ma'ale Gilboa,  Reshafim, Sde Nahum, and Nir David; and Shita prison.

VALLEY OF JEZREEL

Valley of Jezreel, Israel, courtesy, Wikipedia

The Jezreel Valley, also known as the Valley of Megiddo or the Plain of Esdraelon, is a large fertile plain and inland valley in northern Israel formed by the Kishon River. It takes its name from the ancient city of Jezreel which was located on a low hill overlooking the southern edge of the valley. The name “Jezreel” is of Hebrew origin and means "God sows", aptly named since the valley has become known as the breadbasket of Israel. It is bordered to the north by the highlands of the Lower Galilee region, to the south by the Samarian highlands, to the west and northwest by the Mount Carmel range, and to the east by the Jordan Valley, with Mount Gilboa marking its southern extent. Today the largest city in the valley is the Arab Muslim/Christian city of Nazareth which lies near its center. In Christian eschatology, the Final Battle between the forces of Gog and Magog, good and evil, will be fought at the site of Har Megiddo – Mount Megiddo, near the village of the same name. Centuries later, the name of this site became Latinized to “Armageddon”.

In the Biblical period, the Jezreel Valley partly covered the Israelite territories of Asher, Menasheh, Zvulun, and Yissasschar. During the rule of the Prophetess Deborah, a major battle occurred at Mount Tabor, in the eastern part of the valley, between the Israelites under Barak and the Canaanites under Sisera. The valley was also the scene of a victory by the Israelites under Gideon, against the Midianites, the Amalekites, and the Children of the East (Judges 6:3), but was later the location at which the Israelites, led by King Saul, were defeated by the Philistines at Mount Gilboa (1 Samuel 28:4, 29:1–29:6, 31:1-31.6). During the period of the Divided Kingdom, Jehu, an army captain of the northern Kingdom of Israel, killed King Jehoram in the valley, and had Jezebel killed in Jezreel town (2 Kings 9:1-9:10).

After the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and due to subsequent invasions and counter-invasions in the following centuries, the area gradually lost its population and by the 13^th century, after the Crusader period, it was largely deserted, became a swampland, and abandoned to nomads. However, the edges of the valley, namely villages like Bet Shean were still populated, mainly by Muslim Arab settlers but also by some Jews who remained. The 14th century topographer Ishtori Haparchi settled there and completed his work Kaftor Vaferach in 1322, the first Hebrew book on the geography of Palestine. But in the main, the valley remained swampland which bred malaria making settlement impossible. In the 1870s, the Sursock family, a Greek family in Beirut purchased 80,000 acres of valley land from the Ottoman government for approximately £20,000. In 1910, Yehoshua Hankin completed his first major Jewish purchase in the Jezreel Valley. He bought some 10,000 dunams of land in the area of Al-Fuleh (now Afula), which became the home of two moshav settlements, Merhavia in 1911 and Tel Adashim in 1913. Afula itself, was then an Arab hamlet that was also home to a small Jewish community. By 1924, this community had grown sufficiently and was able to establish the Emek Medical Center which served the entire region. By the 1920s, Nazareth also had a Jewish population (see article on Nazareth). Between 1912 and 1925 the Sursocks sold part of their landholdings to the Jewish National Fund which established Nahalal, the 1^st large moshav, in 1921, and part to the American Zion Commonwealth which purchased Afula in 1925. The Jewish farmers who settled on the land, set about the task of draining the swamps to enable further land development.

In the late 1920s, a synagogue mosaic was uncovered by archaeologists at Bet Alfa. (see Bet Alfa and Synagogue). Valley sites established during the British Mandate period included: Ginnegar, Balfouria (1922), Mizra, Kfar Gidon (1923), Gevat, Ramat David, Bet Shearim, Bet Zaid, Kfar Baruch (1926), Kfar Yehoshua, Sde Yaacov (1927), Kfar Hahoresh (1933), Alonim (1938), Dovrat (1946), and Gazit (1947).

During the Arab riots in the 1930s, Bet Shean served as a base for Arab attacks against Jews whether they were immigrants or not. Throughout the centuries, Jews have live in Bet Shean, on and off, but during the riots, the Arabs finally expelled them. During this time, the settlement of Tel Amal was established as a Tower and Stockade settlement for the purpose of defense against Arab attacks. Today, it is part of Gan Hashlosha National Park, one of the most popular recreation areas in Israel. After Israeli independence, development of the valley increased in pace. In 1954, Kibbutz Yifat was established. It houses the Museum of the Beginning of Settlement and contains exhibiting items and photos of the pioneer settlement in Israel. Max Stern Yizreel Valley College, located between Afula and Nazareth, was founded in 1965 and offers BA degrees and holds courses in such fields as Economics, Behavioral Sciences, Social Sciences, Communication Studies, Human Services, Health Administration, Nursing Studies and General Studies. In 1980, the Jezreel Valley gained regional status and the Jezreel Valley Regional Council was established in Nahalal. In 2006, the Israeli Transportation Ministry and the Regional Council announced plans to build an international airport near Megiddo but the project was shelved due to environmental objections.