Even Sapir

Even Sapir
Even Sapir
Coordinates: 31°45′46.8″N 35°8′4.55″E / 31.763000°N 35.1345972°E / 31.763000; 35.1345972Coordinates: 31°45′46.8″N 35°8′4.55″E / 31.763000°N 35.1345972°E / 31.763000; 35.1345972
District Jerusalem
Council Mateh Yehuda
Affiliation Moshavim Movement
Founded 1950
Founded by Kurdish immigrants
Population (2017) 728[1]

Even Sapir (Hebrew: אֶבֶן סַפִּיר, lit. Sapphire) is a moshav in central Israel. Located on the outskirts of Jerusalem, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2017 it had a population of 728.[1]

History

The moshav was founded in 1950 by Hebrew repatriants returning from Kurdistan. The name was either taken from Even Sapir, a book written in 1864 by Yaakov Halevi Sapir, a Jerusalem rabbi and emissary,[2] which describes his travels to Yemen in the 19th century,[3] or it was named after Pinchas Sapir, Israel's finance minister, who encouraged Jewish businessmen from the Diaspora to invest in Palestine and the nascent state.[4]

To the north of the moshav is the Monastery of St. John in the Wilderness and a cave attributed to John the Baptist.[5]

Even Sapir is one end point of the Jerusalem Trail, a 42-kilometer walking route around and through Jerusalem, which intersects with the Israel National Trail. The point of intersection is just outside Even Sapir at the Ein Hindak spring.[6]

Even Sapir is a home to "Ben Gurion Institute of Science & Technology", Jerusalem Campus, a housing estate designated for 430 local and international students.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 "List of localities, in Alphabetical order" (PDF). Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved August 26, 2018.
  2. HaReuveni, Immanuel (1999). Lexicon of the Land of Israel (in Hebrew). Miskal - Yedioth Ahronoth Books and Chemed Books. p. 19. ISBN 965-448-413-7.
  3. A Journey to Teman
  4. Judean mountains Esra Magazine
  5. Go with the flow, Jerusalem Post
  6. Jerusalem Trail
  7. BGIST
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