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Motza ({{lang-he-n|מוֹצָא}}) is a neighbourhood in the western edge of
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
,
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
, located 600 metres above
sea levelMean sea level is the average height of the ocean's surface ; used as a standard in reckoning land elevation.- Measurement :...
. In the Judean Hills, surrounded by forest, it is a relatively isolated place connected to Jerusalem by the
Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway{{Mergefrom|Highway 9 |date=July 2009}}{{Mergefrom|Highway 9 |date=July 2009}}{{Israeli Highways routebox|| image= ISR-HW1.PNG| highway= 1| hebrew=| align="center" |...
and the winding mountain road to
Har NofHar Nof is a neighborhood on a hillside on the western boundary of Jerusalem, Israel, with a population of 20,000 residents, primarily Orthodox Jews.-History:...
. Originally the first modern Jewish village outside the city, Motza is located on the site of a Biblical village of the same name. It was the scene of a violent attack in the
1929 Palestine riotsThe 1929 Palestine riots refers to a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 when a long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated into violence...
.
History
Modern Motza's beginning can be traced to the 1859 purchase of farmland from the nearby Arab village of
QalunyaQalunya was a Palestinian Arab village located west of Jerusalem.Prior to the village's destruction in 1948, with the exception of 166 dunums, Colonia's land was privately owned: 3,594 dunums were owned by Arabs, while 1,084 dunums were owned by Jews.-Location:Qalunya stood on a mountain slope,...
(Colonia) by a Baghdadi Jew, Shaul Yehuda, with the aid of British consul
James FinnJames Finn was a British Consul in the 1850s in Jerusalem in the then Ottoman Empire. His wife was Elizabeth Anne Finn, a writer and philanthropist who helped establish the experimental farm at the village of Artas outside Bethlehem.-Books :...
. Jewish families from Jerusalem joined the enterprise, one of which ran a tile factory, among the earliest industry in the region. Despite preparation for groundbreaking and deciding on the name
Motza for the place, legal complications prevented settlement, though a
traveller's innA caravanserai was a roadside inn where travelers could rest and recover from the day's journey...
was established at the site in 1871 by Yehoshua Yellin, a notable figure of the
Old YishuvThe Old Yishuv refers to the Jewish community that lived in Eretz Yisrael from the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE to the First Aliyah in 1881, prior to the onset of Zionist immigration....
. He built the inn on the foundation of an older Roman building. A
B'nai B'rithB'nai B'rith International is the oldest continually operating Jewish service organization in the world...
official eventually solved the legal problems, and finalized a deal in which the Motza residents could pay for their plots in long-term payments.
On his visit in 1898,
Theodor HerzlTheodor Herzl Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl ' onMouseout='HidePop("90853")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Cupressus">cypress tree
The genus Cupressus is one of several genera within the family Cupressaceae that have the common name cypress; for the others, see cypress ....
which became a centrepiece of the village for a time, though it was later uprooted. The tree-planting inspired
David RemezDavid Remez was an Israeli politician, the country's first Minister of Transportation, and a signatory of the Israeli declaration of independence.-Biography:...
to name the
sanatoriumA sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, typically tuberculosis. A distinction is sometimes made between "sanitarium" and "sanatorium" .-History:The rationale for sanatoria was that before antibiotic treatments existed, a regimen of rest and good...
opened in the village
ArzaArza is a small populated township east of Lhasa in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. It belongs to Lhari County of the Nagqu Prefecture.It has a population of around 215 people.-External links and references:*...
, or
cedarCedar is a genus of coniferous trees in the plant family Pinaceae. They are most closely related to the Firs , and share a very similar cone structure...
, even though it was a different species. The children of Motza were educated by author and researcher Moshe David Gaon, father of future star
Yehoram GaonYehoram Gaon , informally spelled Yoram Gaon is an Israeli singer and actor. He was born in Jerusalem to a Sephardic Jewish family.-Singing career:...
. The village was the only Jewish presence in the area, as the other Jewish villages of
Kfar UriaKfar Uria is a moshav in central Israel. Located near Beit Shemesh, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 445....
and
HartuvHartuv or Har-Tuv was a moshava in the Judean Hills, built on lands purchased from the Palestinian-Arab village of Artuf by English missionaries in 1883. It was destroyed in the 1929 Palestine riots but was rebuilt in 1930. In 1948 it was abandoned again...
were far to the west among the
Judean foothillsThe Shephelah is a designation usually applied to the region in south-central Israel of 10-15 km of low hills between the central Mount Hebron and the coastal plains of Philistia within the area of the Judea, at an altitude of 120-450 metres above sea level...
.
1929 murders
Despite good relations with neighbouring Arab communities, the village was attacked during the
1929 Palestine riotsThe 1929 Palestine riots refers to a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 when a long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated into violence...
. Several residents of Kolonia attacked an outlying house belonging to the Maklef family, killing the father, mother, son, two daughters, and their two guests. Three children survived by escaping out a second-story window; one,
Mordechai MaklefMordechai Maklef was the third Chief of Staff of the Israel Defence Forces and later, director-general of many important public companies in the Israeli economy.-Early life:...
, later became
Chief of Staff of the Israeli ArmyThe Chief of General Staff is the supreme commander and Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. The Chief of Staff is the only active Israeli officer with the rank of Rav Aluf at any given time...
. The attackers included the lone police officer and armed man in the area, as well as a shepherd employed by the Maklef family. The village was subsequently abandoned by Jews for a year's time.
The Hope Simpson Report in 1930 mentions a farmer by the name of Broza who, without any help, planted an orchard which flourished in Motza.
In 1933 the villagers also founded the neighbouring
Upper MotzaMotza Illit is a rural community on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israel. It falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 785....
(
Motza Illit). Jerusalem's expansion incorporated Motza into the city. Motza is today home to one of Israel's oldest wineries. In 2006, the Yellin and Yehuda families helped restore Joshua Yellin's original home, among the oldest and most derelict buildings at the site.