Ben Shemen Youth Village

Ben Shemen Youth Village (Hebrew: כפר הנוער בן שמן, Kfar HaNo'ar Ben Shemen) is a youth village and agricultural boarding school in central Israel. Located near Ben Shemen and Ginaton, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hevel Modi'in Regional Council. In 2019 it had a population of 620.[1]

Ben Shemen Youth Village

כפר הנוער בן שמן
Ben Shemen Youth Village
Coordinates: 31°57′32.47″N 34°55′40.19″E
CountryIsrael
DistrictCentral
CouncilHevel Modi'in
Founded1927
Founded bySiegfried Lehmann
Population
 (2019)[1]
620
Websitewww.ben-shemen.org.il

History

Ben Shemen youth village, 1920s-30s

The village was established in 1927 on the land of the Hadid factory by Siegfried Lehman. Its aim was to endow children with a Zionist ethic, teach them to work the land, and install an appreciation of responsibility. The school's first students were from Kaunas in Lithuania.

In 1947, it had a population of roughly 1,000.[2] During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the isolated village was under siege by the Arab Legion; eleven youths were killed in one attempt to bring in supplies.[2]

Notable graduates include Shimon Peres, Shulamit Aloni, Moshe Katsav, Dan Ben Amotz, Ze'ev Gur-Arie (Wolfgang Lotz), Micha Tomkiewicz, Amitai Etzioni, and Haim Saban. Today, it has around 1,000 students, of which 400 live in the village.

References

  1. "Population in the Localities 2019" (XLS). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  2. Jewish National Fund (1949). Jewish Villages in Israel. Jerusalem: Hamadpis Liphshitz Press. p. 16.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.