Ramat Yishai (Hebrew: רָמַת יִשַּׁי, Jesse's Heights; Arabic: رمات يشاي) is a town in the Northern District of Israel, located on the side of the Haifa–Nazareth road about 4 kilometres (2.5 mi) eastern to Kiryat Tivon. It was previously called Jaida and was inhabited by Arabs. It achieved local council status in 1958. In 2021 it had a population of 8,071; the vast majority of residents are Jewish.
History
Archaeological remnants have been found from Middle Bronze Age I (a tomb) and the Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad and Abbasid eras. Of particular interest, was a zoomorphic vessel of glass, dating to the Umayyad era.[2] Remains from the Crusades, as well as from the Mamluk era has also been found here.[2]
Ottoman era
During the Ottoman era, a Muslim village called Jeida existed here.[3] It was mentioned in the Ottoman defter for the year 1555-6, named Jayda, located in the Nahiya of Tabariyya of the Liwa of Safad, and with its land designated as Ziamet land.[4]
The village appeared as Geida on the map which Pierre Jacotin compiled in 1799.[5]
A population list from about 1887 showed that Jeida had about 140 inhabitants; all Muslims.[9]
One of the better known buildings in the village is called "the Khan" (caravanserai in Arabic), a 1909 building with surrounding walls. The logo of the village consists of this Ottoman-era building with a palm tree next to it. The town hall flies 2 logo-on-bedsheet flags with this emblem in dark blue on a light blue and a yellow field, respectively.[citation needed]
Ramat Yishai was founded in 1925 when a Zionist organisation purchased 15,000 dunams in Jaida, including the Khan building, from the heirs of the Twsiny family (partners of the Sursuk family of Beirut.) At the time, there were 110 families living in the village.[12][13]
At the time of the 1931 census, Jaida had 29 occupied houses and a population of 77 Jews, 2 Christians, and 33 Muslims; a total of 115.[14]
1929 passport issued to the founder of Ramat Yishai
The land, on the western edge of the Jezreel Valley, which belonged to the village of Jida, was bought by a group of American Zionists in the early 1920s. It was renamed Manor and then Yefe Nof, but was almost deserted after a few years. In 1925, the British philanthropist Yisrael Yehudah "Yishai" Adler saved it from bankruptcy and it was renamed in his honour shortly thereafter.[15] Among the founders of the village were 50 Polish Jewish immigrant families from Łódź and Białystok, who built a textile factory in the village. Yemenite Jews were also among the first residents. They were later joined by Jewish refugees from Romania.[16]
During the Arab Revolt the isolated Jewish population was subject to constant attacks, sniper fire and ambushes from armed militias of local Arabs. On 12 October 1936 Mordechai Feldman was ambushed and killed. On the night of 5 June 1938, armed Arabs attacked the Jews in the village, killed one of the volunteer notrim, Zvi Levine, wounded another, and burned down the textile factory.[17][18]
The population in mid-1937 was estimated as 43 non-Jews and 35 Jews.[19] In the 1945 statistics, Ramat Yishai had 50 residents, all Jewish. It was noted that it was previously called Jeida.[20][21]
State of Israel
Since the 1990s, Ramat Yishai has undergone rapid development. In 2010, the population was estimated at close to 7,000 people, with 1,800 households at the high end of the socioeconomic scale.[16]
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