Magdiel ( he, מגדיאל) is one of the four original communities of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

agriculturalists An agriculturist, agriculturalist, agrologist, or agronomist (abbreviated as agr.), is a professional in the science, practice, and management of agriculture and agribusiness. It is a regulated profession in Canada, India, the Philippines, the U ...

that combined in 1964 to form

Hod Hasharon Hod HaSharon ( he, הוֹד הַשָּׁרוֹן, lit. "Splendor of the Sharon plain") is a city in the Central District of Israel. The city is located approximately east of the Mediterranean coastline, south of Kfar Saba, southeast of Raanana ...

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 ...

. It was founded in 1924 and according to a

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses in ...

conducted in 1931 by the British Mandate authorities had a population of 740.Mills, 1932, p
14
/ref>

History

Before the 20^th century, the site of Magdiel formed part of the Forest of Sharon, a hallmark of the region’s historical landscape. It was an open

woodland A woodland () is, in the broad sense, land covered with trees, or in a narrow sense, synonymous with wood (or in the U.S., the '' plurale tantum'' woods), a low-density forest forming open habitats with plenty of sunlight and limited shade (see ...

dominated by Mount Tabor Oak (Quercus ithaburensis), which extended from

Kfar Yona Kfar Yona ( he, כְּפַר יוֹנָה, lit=Yona's Village) is a city in the Sharon subdistrict in the Central District of Israel. It is about 7 km east of Netanya. With a jurisdiction of 11,017 dunams (~11 km²). in it had a popula ...

in the north to Ra’ananna in the south. The local Arab inhabitants traditionally used the area for

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or s ...

firewood Firewood is any wooden material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form, compared to other forms of wood fuel like pellets or chips. Firewood c ...

and intermittent

cultivation Cultivation may refer to: * The state of having or expressing a good education (bildung), refinement, culture, or high culture * Gardening * The controlled growing of organisms by humans ** Agriculture, the land-based cultivation and breeding is o ...

. The intensification of settlement and agriculture in the

coastal plain A coastal plain is flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and a piedmont area. Some of the largest coastal plains are in Alaska and the southeastern United States. The Gulf Co ...

during the 19^th century led to

deforestation Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then land conversion, converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban area, urban ...

and subsequent

environmental degradation Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is d ...

known from Hebrew sources. Magdiel was established as 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 imm ...

'', starting on 4,000 dunams of land purchased near the Arab village of

Biyar 'Adas Biyar 'Adas ( ar, بِيار عدس) was a Palestinian Arab village located 19 km northeast of the city of Tel Aviv. In 1945 the village had a population of 300 and a total land area of 5,492 dunums. History Ottoman Empire In 1856 the villa ...

. The initial population included Jewish immigrants from

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

and Lithuania, later joined by a group from the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. In 1964, four villages - Magdiel, Ramatayim, Hadar, and Ramat Hadar - merged to become Hod Hasharon. The Magdiel Central Synagogue was built between 1930 and 1944, and was inaugurated in an uncompleted stage in 1931. MagFirstHut

The place name is symbolic ''Meged El'' (i.e., the oil of God)" and appears in the Tanach/Old Testament. Magdiel was the name of an

Edom Edom (; Edomite: ; he, אֱדוֹם , lit.: "red"; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom in Transjordan, located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the south and eas ...

ite clan (possibly the name of an eponymous chieftain) mentioned in

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book o ...

36:43. Its invocation of El may show that that deity was worshipped in Edom, along with Kaus and others. Magdiel is the location of a

Youth Aliyah Youth Aliyah (Hebrew: עלית הנוער, ''Aliyat Hano'ar'', German: Jugend-Alijah, Youth Immigration) is a Jewish organization that rescued thousands of Jewish children from the Nazis during the Third Reich. Youth Aliyah arranged for their ...

boarding school of that name that took in young survivors of the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. Other schools there include a comprehensive secondary school and a technical vocational boarding school of the ORT educational network. File:מגדיאל - פנורמה.-JNF043872.jpeg, Magdiel 1927 File:מגדיאל - פנורמה.-JNF043721.jpeg, Magdiel 1927 File:Biyar 'Adas 1942.jpg, Magdiel 1942 1:20,000 File:Qalqilya 1945.jpg, Magdiel 1945 1:250,000 File:PikiWiki Israel 8656 soldiers of Magdiel 15.5.1948.jpg, Magdiel soldiers during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War

References

{{coord, 32.1613, N, 34.9027, E, source:wikidata, display=title Hod HaSharon Populated places established in 1924 1924 establishments in Mandatory Palestine