Mevo Modi'im (, ''lit.'' Modi'im Gateway), officially Me'or Modi'im (), is a

moshav A moshav (, plural ', "settlement, village") is a type of Israeli village or town or Jewish settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists between 1904 and 1 ...

in central

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. It is also known as the Carlebach Moshav. Located north-west of

Modi'in Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut ( ''Mōdīʿīn-Makkabbīm-Rēʿūt'') is a city located in central Israel, about southeast of Tel Aviv and west of Jerusalem, and is connected to those two cities via Route 443 (Israel), Highway 443. In the population ...

on Highway 443, it falls under the jurisdiction of

Hevel Modi'in Regional Council Hevel Modi'in Regional Council () is a regional council (Israel), regional council located partly in the Shephelah region and partly in the Central Coastal Plain region of the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel. It was founded i ...

. In it had a population of . In 2019, a fire destroyed most of Mevo Modi'im and it is currently in the process of reconstruction and expansion.

Establishment

The village was founded as a

moshav shitufi A moshav shitufi (, lit. ''collective moshav'', pl. ''moshavim shitufiim'') is a type of cooperative State of Israel, Israeli village, whose organizational principles place it between the kibbutz and the moshav on the scale of cooperation. Ideolo ...

in 1975 by Rabbi

Shlomo Carlebach Shlomo Carlebach (; January 14, 1925 – October 20, 1994), known as Reb Shlomo to his followers, was an American rabbi and musician nicknamed "the Singing Rabbi". Although his roots lay in traditional Orthodox yeshivot, he branched out to c ...

, who acquired it from

Poalei Agudat Yisrael Poalei Agudat Yisrael () was a trade union and Jewish political party in the Second Polish Republic and a minor political party in Israel. It was also known as PAI or PAGI, its Hebrew abbreviation (Hebrew: or ). History Poalei Agudas Izrael wa ...

where he had family connections. Rabbi Carlebach lived there in the later years of his life. Some of the residents came to the village as a group from Jerusalem, following the direction of Carlebach. Many came from or through the former "

The House of Love and Prayer The House of Love and Prayer was a Hasidic Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 347 Arguello Boulevard, in the Richmond district of San Francisco, California, in the United States. Founded in spring/April 1968 by rebbe Shlomo Carlebach ...

" which was first established in San Francisco, and later in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Description

At its center, the village has a hand-painted and ornately decorated main

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

, painted by Yitzchak Ben Yehudah. On an uninhabited hill at the moshav center there are remains of an ancient settlement. The remains of a

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

from the

Byzantine period The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived History of the Roman Empire, the events that caused the ...

were found as well as a

mosaic A mosaic () is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/Mortar (masonry), mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and ...

floor that has been preserved almost in its entirety. Next to the remains moshav residents built a new pavilion in memory of Esh Kodesh Gilmore who was killed in a

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

attack on 30 October 2000.

Fire and rebuilding

On May 23, 2019 a large fire destroyed most of Mevo Modi'im - forty out of fifty homes. A Fire Services investigation concluded it was started in multiple locations, raising suspicion of arson. A year after the fire most of the residents were still homeless. In 2020 the residents made a land settlement with authorities. Public contracts for the construction of 112 residential units were engaged in 2021.

References

{{authority control Community settlements Religious Israeli communities Populated places established in 1964 Populated places in Central District (Israel) Shlomo Carlebach 1964 establishments in Israel

Establishment

Description

Fire and rebuilding

See also

References