Ein Karem | |
|---|---|
Neighborhood ofJerusalem | |
 View of Ein Karem | |
 | |
| Coordinates:31°46′5″N35°9′44″E / 31.76806°N 35.16222°E /31.76806; 35.16222 | |
| Country |  Israel |
| District | Jerusalem District |
| City | Jerusalem |
| Founded | Middle Bronze Age |
| Population (2017)[1] | |
• Total | 1,620 |
Ein Karem (Hebrew:עֵין כֶּרֶם,ʿEin Kerem lit. "Spring of the Vineyard"; in ArabicʿAyn Kārim;[2] alsoAin Karem,Ein Kerem) is a historic mountain village southwest ofJerusalem, presently a neighborhood in the outskirts of the modern city, within theJerusalem District. It is the site of theHadassah Medical Center.
Ein Karem was an importantJewish village during the lateSecond Temple period,[3][4] during which it became important toChristianity. Christian tradition holds thatJohn the Baptist was born in Ein Karem, following the biblical verse inLuke saying John's family lived in a "town in the hill country ofJudea". Probably because of its location betweenBethlehem and Jerusalem, this location was a very comfortable one for a pilgrimage, and this led to the establishment of many churches and monasteries in the area.
During the years ofOttoman and laterBritish rule in Palestine, Ein Karem was aPalestinian Arab village. It wasdepopulated of its residents during the1948 Arab-Israeli War.[5][6] After the war it became once again a Jewish settlement.[7] Today, Ein Karem is a vibrant bohemian neighborhood of Jerusalem, with a population of 2,000 (2010).[8] It has retained a very high-level of authenticity, its natural environment remains intact, and its old houses are still inhabited and preserved.[4] It attracts three million visitors a year, one-third of them pilgrims from around the world.[8] Alongside its religious landmarks, Ein Karem is also known for its fine art, culinary, and musical scenes.[9]
The nameEin Karemor Ein Kerem can be literally translated from both Hebrew and Arabic as "Spring of theVineyard". It is derived from the springs and vineyards established on the village's terraced slopes.[10] Another possible translation would be "Spring of Carem", if derived from an ancientIron AgeIsraelite city called Carem, mentioned as a city in the dominion of thetribe of Judah in theSeptuagint version ofBook of Joshua.[11] In Arabic, other than meaning "Spring of the Vineyard", it could be understood as well as "the Generous Spring".[12]
A spring that provides water to the village of Ein Karem stimulated settlement there from an early time.[13]
Pottery has been found near the spring dating to theMiddle Bronze Age.[13]
During theIron Age, orIsraelite period, Ein Karem is usually identified as the location of the biblical village of Beth HaKerem (Jeremiah 6:1; Nehemiah 3:14).[14]
A well-preservedmikveh (Jewish ritual bath) indicates there was a Jewish settlement in theSecond Temple period along with some other discoveries such as handful of graves, bits of a wall, and an olive press.[3][15] A reservoir here was mentioned in theCopper Scroll, one of theDead Sea Scrolls.[16][17]
During excavations in theChurch of Saint John the Baptist, a marble statue ofAphrodite (orVenus) was found, broken in two. It is believed to date from theRoman era and was probably toppled inByzantine times. Today, the statue is at theRockefeller Museum.[18] Excavations in front of the same church, which has at its core the cave which Christian tradition identifies as the birthplace ofJohn the Baptist, have unearthed remains of two Byzantine chapels, one containing an inscription mentioning Christian "martyrs", but without any mention of John.[citation needed] Ceramics from the Byzantine period have also been found in Ein Karem.[19]
In the Byzantine period, as part of the establishment of the “Liturgy of Jerusalem", Ein Karem was identified with the "Visitation", an event mentioned in theNew Testament whereMary, expectingJesus, encountered her cousinElizabeth, who was pregnant withJohn the Baptist.[10] Byzantine sources link Ein Karem with the residence of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, a place not specified in the New Testament.[10] In around 530 CE, the Christian pilgrimTheodosius places Elizabeth's town at a distance of five miles (8.0 km) from Jerusalem,[20] which suits Ein Karem.[citation needed]
Ein Karem was recorded after theIslamic conquest.Al-Tamimi, the physician (d. 990), refers to a church in Ein Karem that was venerated by Christians, and notes a particular plant he collected there.[21]
It is mentioned under the name St. Jehan de Bois, "Saint John in the Mountains",[2] during theCrusades. The Crusaders were the first to build here achurch dedicated to St John, rebuilt in the 17th century by the Franciscans and still active today, andMoshe Sharon considers it as "almost sure" that the Crusaders are the ones who started the tradition of identifying that particular site as St John's birthplace.[22]
Afterconquering Jerusalem in 1187,Saladin granted the village of Ein Karem toAbu Maydan, a renownedSufi teacher fromSeville,Andalusia. Abu Madyan had fought in the 1187Battle of Hattin against the Crusaders before returning to theMaghreb, where he eventually died inTlemcen, in what is todayAlgeria. A document, drafted in Jerusalem in 1320 (720 AH) by Abu Maydan's great-grandson, outlines thewaqf's holdings, beginning with Ein Karem:[10]
"A village known by the name of Ein Karem, one of the villages adjacent to Jerusalem. This village includes farmed and fallow lands, both cultivated and abandoned, slopes and plains, unproductive bare rock, buildings in ruins, farmhouses, buildings in good repair with their surrounding fields, a little garden,pomegranate trees and other kinds irrigated with water from springs on the property,olive trees of a “rumi” or western variety,carob trees,fig trees,sessile oaks, qiqebs (hardwoods). This village is bounded on all sides: to the south by the greatMaliha (salt pan); to the north by properties belonging to Ein-Kaout,Qalunya, Harash,Sataf, and Zawiya el-Bakhtyari; to the west by Ein Esheshqqaq, and to the east by properties belonging to the Maliha and to Beit Mazmil. This village is established as a waqf, with all attendant rights, appurtenances, fields, cultivated lands,threshing floors, loamy earth, with freshwater springs on location, prairies, planted trees, disused wells, vineyards, in a word, with all rights relating thereto, both within and without. However, the mosque, house of God, the path and the cemetery intended for use by Muslims, are not included in the present waqf."[10]
The Waqf Abu Maydan endowment, which included theMughrabi Quarter in Jerusalem, has been supported by agricultural and property revenues from the village of Ein Karem until the 1948 war.[10]
A coin from the reign ofAs-Salih Hajji (1389 CE) was found here, together with pottery, glassware and other coins from theMamluk era.[23]
Most of the village – some 15,000dunams – waswaqf land set aside charitably to benefit theMoroccan Muslim community in Jerusalem, belonging to the endowment established byAbu Madyan in the 14th century.[24]
In 1517, the village was included in theOttoman empire with the rest ofPalestine and in the 1596tax-records it appeared as 'Ain Karim, located in theNahiya of Jabal Quds of theLiwa ofAl-Quds. The village had at this time 29 households, allMuslim. The villagers paid a fixed tax rate of 33.3% on agricultural products, which included wheat, barley, summer crops, vineyards, grape syrup/molasse, goats and beehives in addition to "occasional revenues"; a total of 5,300akçe. All of the revenue went to awaqf.[25][26]
In the course 17th century, the Franciscans manage to recover the ruins of the church raised by the Crusaders over the traditional birth cave of St. John and, in spite of local Muslim opposition, to rebuild and fortify it as theMonastery of St. John in the Mountains.
Israeli geographer Yehoshua Ben-Arieh described Ein Karem as "the most important village west of Jerusalem" in the 19th century.[10]
James Silk Buckingham visited in the early 1800s, and found he was "more pleased with this village [...] than with any other place I had yet visited in Palestine."[27]
In 1838,Ain Karim was noted as a Muslim and Latin Christian village in theBeni Hasan district.[28][29]
In 1863Victor Guérin noted a thousand inhabitants "of whom there are barely two hundred and fifty who are Catholics; the others are Muslim."[30] The ancestors of the latter were held to descend from Maghrabins, that is to say, originating from theMaghreb (North Africa).[31] Guérin describes them as rowdy and fanatical, until a few years before his visit having very often attacked the Catholic monks at the Monastery of St John in order to extort from them food and money, a habit that had subsided only lately.[31][2]
An official Ottoman village list from about 1870 showed thatAin Karim had 178 houses and a population of 533, though the population count included only men. The population consisted of 412 Muslims in 138 houses, 66 Latin Christians in 18 houses, and 55 Greek Christians in 12 houses.[32][33]
In 1883, thePEF'sSurvey of Western Palestine (SWP) described Ain Karim as: "A flourishing village of about 600 inhabitants, 100 being Latin Christians. It stands on a sort of natural terrace projecting from the higher hills on the east of it, with a broad flat valley below on the west. On the south below the village is a fine spring ('Ain Sitti Miriam), with a vaulted place for prayer over it. The water issues from a spout into a trough."[34]
In 1896 the population of 'Ain Karim was estimated to be about 1,290 persons.[35]
'Ayn Karim | |
|---|---|
Village | |
 | |
| Palestine grid | 165/130 |
| Date of depopulation | 10 and 21 April 1948, 16 July 1948[36] |
| Area | |
• Total | 15,029 dunams (15.029 km2 or 5.803 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 650 m (2,130 ft) |
| Population (1948[39]) | |
• Total | 3,689 |
| Cause(s) of depopulation | Influence of nearby town's fall |
| Secondary cause | Arab–Israeli War |
| Current Localities | Ein Karem[40]Beit Zayit,[41]Even Sapir[41] |
In the1922 census of Palestine, conducted by theBritish Mandate authorities, the population of 'Ain Karim was 1,735; consisting of 1,282 Muslims and 453 Christians,[42] increasing in the1931 census to 2,637, in 555 houses.[43]
During the1929 riots in Palestine, Arab residents of 'Ain Karim launched raids against the nearby Jewish neighborhood ofBayit VeGan.[44]
In the1945 statistics, Ein Karim had a population of 3,180; 2,510 Muslims and 670 Christians,[45] The total land area was 15,029 dunams,[37] of this, a total of 7,960dunums of land were irrigated or used for plantations, 1,199 were used forcereals;[46] while a total of 1,704 dunams were classified as built-up (urban) areas.[47]
The 1947United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine placed 'Ayn Karim in the Jerusalem enclave intended forinternational control.[48]
When the1947–1949 Palestine war started, 'Ain Karim became a major base of operations against nearby Jewish neighborhoods.[49] In February 1948, the village's 300 guerilla fighters were reinforced by a well-armedArab Liberation Army force of mainlySyrian fighters, and on March 10 a substantialIraqi detachment arrived in the village. This was followed within days by some 160Egyptian fighters. On March 19, the villagers joined their foreign guests in attacking a Jewish convoy on theTel Aviv–Jerusalem road.[50] Immediately after theApril 1948 massacre at the nearby village ofDeir Yassin (1.2 miles (2 km) to the north), most of the women and children in the village were evacuated.[51]
The village was finally captured by Israeli forces during theten-day campaign of July 1948. The remaining residents fled on July 10–11. The Arab Liberation Army forces which had camped in the village left on July 14–16 after Jewish forces captured two dominating hilltops,Khirbet Beit Mazmil and Khirbet al-Hamama, and shelled the village. During its last days, 'Ayn Karim suffered from severe food shortages.[51]
After the war ended, Israel incorporated the village into the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem.[51] Ein Karem was one of the few depopulated Arab localities which survived the war with most of the buildings intact. The abandoned homes were resettled with new migrants, many of whomMizrahi Jews whofled from the Arab countries who fought the Arab-Israeli War during the war and after it, i.e. Jews fromIraq andEgypt but also fromYemen.[citation needed] Over the years, the bucolic atmosphere attracted a population of artisans and craftsmen. Today it is a vibrant bohemian neighborhood of Jerusalem, attracting many artist, young people and tourists.[citation needed]
In 1961,Hadassah built its medical center on a nearby hilltop, including theHadassah Medical Center and theHebrew University of Jerusalem schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology.[52]
Only theSeptuagint translation of theHebrew Bible, the base for the ChristianOld Testament, names a place in the hills ofJudah as "Carem" (Joshua 15:30).[2][53]
According to theNew Testament,Mary went "into the hill country, to a city of Judah" (Luke 1:39) when she visited her cousinElizabeth, the wife ofZechariah.
During theByzantine period, Theodosius (530 CE) gives the distance between Jerusalem and the town of Elizabeth as five miles (8.0 km).[20]
TheJerusalem Calendar (Kalendarium Hyerosolimitanum) or theGeorgian Festival Calendar, dated by some before 638, the year of theMuslim conquest, mentions the village by name, "Enqarim," as the place of a festival in memory of Elizabeth celebrated on the twenty-eighth of August.[54]
The English writerSaewulf, on pilgrimage to Palestine in 1102–1103, wrote of a monastery in the area of Ein Karim dedicated toSt. Sabas, where 300 monks had been "slain bySaracens", but without mentioning any tradition connected to St. John.[22]
TheChurch of the Visitation, orAbbey Church of St John in the Woods, is located across the village to the southwest from St. John's. The ancient sanctuary there was built against a rock declivity. It is venerated as thepietra del nascondimento, the "stone in which John was concealed," in reference to theProtevangelium of James. The site is also attributed to John the Baptist's parental summer house, where Mary visited them. The modern church was built in 1955, also on top of ancient church remnants. It was designed byAntonio Barluzzi, anItalian architect, who designed many other churches in the Holy Land during the 20th century.[55]
TheCatholic Monastery of St. John ba-Harim (St. John "in the Mountains"[56] in Hebrew) is centered on a church containing the cave identified by tradition as the birthplace of Saint John the Baptist. The church is built over the remnants of aCrusader church and its porch stands over the remains of twoByzantine chapels, both containingmosaic floors. The current structure received its outlook as the result of the latest large architectural intervention, finished in 1939 under the guidance of the Italian architect,Antonio Barluzzi.[57]
In 1941–1942 the Franciscans excavated the area west of the church and monastery. The southernmost of the rock-cut chambers they found can probably be dated to the first century CE.[58][59] Some remnants below the southern part of the porch suggests the presence of amikve (Jewish ritual bath) that is dated to theSecond Temple Period.
The church is mentioned in theBook of the Demonstration, attributed toEutychius of Alexandria (940): "The church of Bayt Zakariya in the district ofAelia bears witness to the visit of Mary to her kinswoman Elizabeth."[60]
The site of the Crusader church built above the traditional birth cave of St John, destroyed after the departure of the Crusaders, was purchased byFranciscan custos, FatherThomas of Novara in 1621.[61][22] After a decades-long struggle with the Muslim inhabitants, the Franciscans finally managed to rebuild and fortify their church and monastery by the 1690s.[62][63]
The monastery ofLes Sœurs de Notre-Dame de Sion (Sisters of Our Lady of Zion), built in 1860,[2] was founded by two brothers from France,Marie-Théodore Ratisbonne andMarie-Alphonse Ratisbonne, who were born Jewish and converted to Christianity.[64] They established anorphanage here. Alphonse himself lived in the monastery and is buried in its garden.
The convent was established by theJerusalem mission of theRussian Orthodox Church in 1871[22] (see also Russian Wikipedia pagehere). The name "Gorny Convent" refers to the visit of the Virgin Mary to her cousin St. Elizabeth "into the hill country, to a town in Judah,"[65]gorny meaningmountainous in Russian. It was nicknamed "Muskobiya" (Arabic forMuscovite) by the local Arab villagers, which mutated in Hebrew to "Moskovia." Apart from the structures serving the nunnery and a pilgrims hostel, it now contains three churches, enclosed within a compound wall. The Church of Our Lady of Kazan (Kazanskaya) is dedicated to the holy icon ofOur Lady of Kazan and is the oldest among the three churches, being consecrated in 1873. The Cathedral of All Russian Saints, with its gilded domes, was started before theRussian Revolution and could only be completed in 2007. The cave church of St. John the Baptist was consecrated in 1987.[citation needed]
According to a Christian tradition which started in the 14th century, the Virgin Mary drank water from this village spring, and here is also the place where Mary and Elizabeth met. Therefore, since the 14th century the spring is known as the Fountain of the Virgin. The spring waters are considered holy by some Catholic and Orthodox Christian pilgrims who visit the site and fill their bottles. What looks like a spring is actually the end of an ancient aqueduct. The former Arab inhabitants built amosque and school on the site, of which aMaqam (shrine) andminaret still remain. An inscribed panel to the courtyard of the mosque dates it to 1828–1829 CE (AH 1244).[66] The spring was repaired and renovated by BaronEdmond de Rothschild.[67]
St. Vincent-Ein Kerem is a home for physically or mentally handicapped children. Founded in 1954, St. Vincent-Ein Kerem is a non-profit enterprise under leadership of the Daughters of Charity ofSt. Vincent de Paul.[68]
TheMonastery of St. John in the Wilderness, containing a cave associated with the saint, is located close to Ein Karem andMoshavEven Sapir.
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help){{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help){{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help){{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
