Be'er Tuvia ( he, בְּאֵר טוֹבִיָּה, ''Be'er Toviya'', "Tuvia's Well") is a moshav in the Southern District of

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

. Located near the city of

Kiryat Malakhi Kiryat Malakhi ( he, קִרְיַת מַלְאָכִי, also Qiryat Malakhi or Kiryat Malachi) is a city in the Southern District of Israel, from Ashkelon. In it had a population of . Its jurisdiction is 4,632 dunams (~4.6 km2). Histor ...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Be'er Tuvia Regional Council Be'er Tuvia Regional Council ( he, מועצה אזורית באר טוביה, ''Mo'atza Azorit Be'er Tovia''), is a regional council in the southern Coastal Plain region in Israel. It borders Yoav and Nahal Sorek regional councils in the east; ...

. In its population was .

History

In 1887, a group of

First Aliyah The First Aliyah (Hebrew: העלייה הראשונה, ''HaAliyah HaRishona''), also known as the agriculture Aliyah, was a major wave of Jewish immigration (''aliyah'') to Ottoman Syria between 1881 and 1903. Jews who migrated in this wave came ...

pioneers from Bessarabia founded a

moshava A moshava ( he, מושבה, plural: ''moshavot'' , lit. ''colony'') was a form of rural Jewish settlement in Ottoman Palestine, established by the members of the Old Yishuv since late 1870s and during the first two waves of Jewish Zionist im ...

, which they named Qastina, after the neighboring

Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...

village of the same name. Although supported by

Baron Edmond de Rothschild Baron Abraham Edmond Benjamin James de Rothschild (Hebrew: הברון אברהם אדמונד בנימין ג'יימס רוטשילד - ''HaBaron Avraham Edmond Binyamin Ya'akov Rotshield''; 19 August 1845 – 2 November 1934) was a French memb ...

, the moshava did not prosper due to lack of water, distance from other Jewish centers, attacks by neighboring Arab villagers and strained relations between the settlers and the Baron's administration. In 1896, the association of

Hovevei Zion Hovevei Zion ( he, חובבי ציון, lit. '' hose who areLovers of Zion''), also known as Hibbat Zion ( he, חיבת ציון), refers to a variety of organizations which were founded in 1881 in response to the Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russ ...

in Odessa purchased the land and new settlers came. Qastina was renamed Be'er Tuvia - an adaptation of the site's Arabic name, "Bir Ta'abya". In 1910, the moshava again faced financial collapse and some members approached the Jewish National Fund with a proposal that it buy the land and houses. The JNF agreed, but due to disagreement with Hovevei Zion this never happened. Instead, the JNF compensated farmers who left Be'er Tuvia and in 1913 brought farmers from Hulda to replace them. Within a short time, the moshava's situation was much improved. According to the 1922 census of Palestine, conducted by the British Mandate authorities, Be'er Tuvia had a population of 112 inhabitants, all Jews.Barron, 1923, Table V, Sub-district of Gaza, p
8
/ref> The moshava was practically destroyed during the 1929 Palestine riots and had to be abandoned. In 1930, it was founded anew as moshav by veterans of the

Jewish Legion The Jewish Legion (1917–1921) is an unofficial name used to refer to five battalions of Jewish volunteers, the 38th to 42nd (Service) Battalions of the Royal Fusiliers in the British Army, raised to fight against the Ottoman Empire during ...

and kibbutzniks, mostly members of

Kfar Giladi Kfar Giladi ( he, כְּפַר גִּלְעָדִי, ''lit.'' Giladi Village, ar, كفار جلعادي) is a kibbutz in the Galilee Panhandle of northern Israel. Located south of Metula on the Naftali Mountains above the Hula Valley and alon ...

and Merhavia. By the time of the 1931 census, there were 62 occupied houses and a population of 206 Jews, 4 Christians and 2 Muslims. After a water source was discovered, Be'er Tuviya became one of the most prosperous moshavim in the country. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, many of the moshav members joined the

Jewish Brigade The Jewish Infantry Brigade Group, more commonly known as the Jewish Brigade Group or Jewish Brigade, was a military formation of the British Army in the World War II, Second World War. It was formed in late 1944 and was recruited among Yishuv, Y ...

of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

. Among them was

Israel Tal Israel Tal ( he, ישראל טל, September 13, 1924, – September 8, 2010), also known as Talik (Hebrew: טליק), was an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) general known for his knowledge of tank warfare and for leading the development of Israel's M ...

.Major General Israel Tal obituary
''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', September 20, 2010 During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the moshav was used by the Israel Defense Forces as a base for the troops fighting

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

in the

Negev The Negev or Negeb (; he, הַנֶּגֶב, hanNegév; ar, ٱلنَّقَب, an-Naqab) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The region's largest city and administrative capital is Beersheba (pop. ), in the north. At its sout ...

. By 1990s the moshav economy was mainly based on citrus and intensive farming. Ben & Jerry's also manufactures ice cream at this location and their only factory in the Middle East.

Notable residents

Nehemia Levtzion Nehemia Levtzion ( he, נחמיה לבציון; November 24, 1935 — August 15, 2003) was an Israeli scholar of African history, Near East, Islamic, and African studies, and the President of the Open University of Israel from 1987 to 1992 and the ...

(1935—2003), scholar of

African history The history of Africa begins with the emergence of hominids, archaic humans and — around 300–250,000 years ago—anatomically modern humans ('' Homo sapiens''), in East Africa, and continues unbroken into the present as a patchwork of d ...

, Near East, Islamic, and African studies, President of the

Open University of Israel The Open University of Israel ( he, האוניברסיטה הפתוחה, ''Ha-Universita ha-Ptuha'') is a distance-education university in Israel. It is one of ten public universities in Israel recognized by the Council of Higher Education (C ...

, and Executive Director of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute *

David Remez David Remez ( he, דוד רמז, 1886 – 19 May 1951) was an Israeli politician, the country's first Minister of Transportation, and a signatory of the Israeli declaration of independence. Biography Remez was born David Drabkin in the village o ...

*General

, "father" of the

Merkava The Merkava ( he, מרכבה, , "chariot") is a series of main battle tanks used by the Israel Defense Forces and the backbone of the IDF's armored corps. The tank began development in 1970, and its first generation, the Merkava mark 1, entere ...

tank File:Be'er Tuvia (before 1899).jpg, Be'er Tuvia circa 1888 File:באר טוביה - באר טוביה החדשה שקמה על חורבותיה של המושבה הישנה-JNF037305.jpeg, Be'er Tuvia 1937 File:Al-Batani 1930.jpg, Be'er Tuvia 1930 1:20,000 File:Isdud 1945.jpg, Be'er Tuvia 1945 1:250,000

References

{{Jewish villages depopulated during the 1929 Palestine riots Moshavim Be'er Tuvia Regional Council Jewish villages in Mandatory Palestine Populated places in Southern District (Israel) Populated places established in 1930 1930 establishments in Mandatory Palestine 1929 Palestine riots 1896 establishments in Ottoman Syria Romanian-Jewish culture in Israel