Eshtaol

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Eshtaol (Hebrew: אשתאול) is a moshav just north of Beit Shemesh in central Israel. It belongs to Matte Yehuda Regional Council.

The community was founded in 1949. The founders were immigrants to Israel from Yemen who settled there as soon as the Israeli War of Independence ended.

Eshtaol is one of the cities of the Tribe of Dan. According to the Hebrew Bible, Shimshon began to prophesy "between Tzor'a and Eshtaol" (Book of Judges 13:25).

The moshav was founded as part of the Prozdor Jerusalem (Jerusalem corridor) program to populate Israel after its war of independence, in order to create a contiguous bloc of habitation between the coastal plain and Jerusalem, which lies in the mountains.

The first group of settlers arrived in December 1949. They were almost all immigrants to Israel from Yemen, and they made their livelihood by working in forests for the Jewish National Fund. Later, the "Joint" helped the people establish a chicken coop and other agriculture.

At the end of the 1990s, the moshav expanded to absorb 100 new families, who built their homes on fields provided by the Housing Ministry of Israel. Today more than 200 families live in the moshav.

The residents sustain themselves through agriculture, tourism and many other professions.