Everything about Kiryat Arba totally explained
Kiryat Arba or
Qiryat Arba is an urban Jewish community in Southern
Judea (Southern
West Bank) adjoining the city of
Hebron.
Name
The
Hebrew name is
קִרְיַת־אַרְבַּע, meaning "Town of the Four [Giants]", and transliterated in
Standard Hebrew as
Qiryat Arbaʻ and in
Tiberian Hebrew as
Qiryaṯ-ʼarbaʻ. The equivalent
Arabic name is
قرية أربع Qiryat ʼArbaʻ. The place is mentioned in the
English Bible as
Kirjath-arba.
Biblically, it's generally regarded as another name for Hebron.
Neighborhoods
Kiryat Arba is made up of four neighborhoods, not including the Jewish community in Hebron proper. The central and largest one is the Kiryah, made up mostly of older apartment buildings. North of it lay the small neighborhood Ashoret Yitzhak and the larger Ramat Mamre (also called Harsina), which consists of newer, houses and duplexes. The last is Givat Avot, located at the entrance of Hebron. Surrounded by Arab buildings, it sits next to the Israeli police station for Hebron, the Jabra. Here is a map of the area
(External Link
).
Recent history
In 1968, a group of future
Jewish
Gush Emunim members led by
Rabbi Moshe Levinger and Rabbi Eliezer Waldman founded Kiryat Arba immediately to the east of Hebron. Settlements around Hebron like this are claimed to be justified also in light of the
1929 Hebron massacre and the continuing presence of Jews in the area until then. Building began on an abandoned military base in 1970, and residents moved in 1971. The town is a self-sufficient community, with pre-nursery though
post-secondary educational institutions, medical facilities,
shopping centers, a bank and a
post office. Kiryat Arba attained
Local council status in 1979. The population in December 2006 was approximately 7,000, with an additional 2,700 Israelis living in a number of smaller surrounding settlements, including
immigrants from the CIS and a community of
Bnei Menashe from
Manipur and
Mizoram.
(External Link) While Kiryat Arba is located within the territory of the
Har Hebron Regional Council, it's an independent
local council.
Beit HaShalom, was established in 2007.
(External Link) (External Link)(External Link)
The town is home to the
Meir Kahane Memorial Park, in memory of the founder of
Kach, a Jewish Far-Right organization designated as a terrorist group by the US, the EU and Israel. The grave of
Baruch Goldstein, who perpetrated the
Cave of the Patriarchs massacre also lies within the park and has become a place of pilgrimage for the
Far Right.
The chief rabbi of the town is
Dov Lior, who also serves as
rosh yeshiva of the local Nir
Yeshiva.
Origin of the name Kiryat Arba
In the
Book of Joshua (14:15) it says: "Now the name of Hebron previously was Kiryat Arba, he [Arba] was the great man among the giants [
Anakim]..."
(External Link)
According to the rabbinical commentator
Rashi,
Kiryat Arba ("Town of
Arba") means either the town (
kirya) of
Arba himself, the giant who had three sons, or is referring to four giants:
Arba and his three sons, Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmi who are described as being the sons of a "giant" in : "On the way through the Negev, they (
Joshua and
Caleb) came to Hebron where [theysaw] Ahiman, Sheshai and Talmi, descendants of the Giant (
ha-anak)..."
(External Link) which is according to the
Targum and
Saadia Gaon, but some say that
Anak ("Giant", see
Anak) is a proper name (Targum Jonathan and the Septuagint).
(External Link), and that he,
Anak, may have been the father of the three others mentioned in the
Book of Numbers as living in Hebron, which the Book of Joshua says was previously called
Kiryat Arba.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Kiryat Arba'.
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