Ben Shemen (Hebrew: בֶּן שֶׁמֶן, lit. very fruitful) is a moshav in central Israel. Located around four kilometres east of Lod, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hevel Modi'in Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 881.[1]
The moshav was founded in 1905 on the land of the former Arab estate of Bayt ‘Arīf.[5] It was one of the first villages established on Jewish National Fund land.[4] The first Jewish National Fund forest is also located in Ben Shemen.[4] In 1910 Ben Shemen was the site of the Bezalel Artists' Colony (1910), a predecessor to the Ben Shemen youth village.[5]
According to a census conducted in 1922 by the British Mandate authorities, Ben Shemen had a population of 90 Jews.[6] Which had increased in the 1931 census to 353 residents, in 30 houses.[7]
In 1923 it was split in two, with a group of trial farms eventually becoming a separate moshav, Kerem Ben Shemen.
The Ben Shemen Youth Village was established adjacent to the moshav in 1927 and is today a large agriculturalboarding school.[8][4] In 1945, the lands of Ben Shemen amounted to 2,176 dunams, of which 607 dunams were devoted to orchards, 947 dunams to field crops, one dunam for bananas, and 594 dunams were left uncultivated. According to Marom, "Citrus growing remained undeveloped in Ben Shemen, with the youth village specializing in orchards and field crops".[9]
During road-work near Ben Shemen in 1975, a burial cave containing three ossuaries was found. An Aramaic funerary inscription on one of them mentions "Levi son of Menashe" and is dated to the late Second Temple period, probably during the first century BCE or CE.[11]
Additionally, a boulder that collapsed from the cave wall had a Greek funerary inscription written in red, which according to its style, was probably inscribed during the 2nd or 3rd centuries CE. Di Segni suggested that the appearance of the Hebrew name "Yo'ezer" on the inscription indicates that the area had not been completely cleared of Jews after the Jewish–Roman wars. Jews who did not participate in the revolt may have survived in the area, converting to Christianity and preserving the family name for generations to come. Others have argued that, despite its rarity, a Christian usage of an Old Testament name doesn't require additional explanation.[11][12]
^Vilnay, Zev, Rachel and Oren: The Vilnay Guide to Israel. A new Millenium edition, Vol 1: Jerusalem, Beersheba and Southern Israel, Atlit 1999, p. 212, ISBN965-90269-0-0
