| Beit Nekofa | |
| Hebrew | בֵּית נְקוֹפָה |
| Name meaning | Disputed |
| Founded | August 1949 |
| Founded by | Immigrants from Yugoslavia |
| Council | Mateh Yehuda Regional Council |
| District | Jerusalem |
| Coordinates | |
|
Beit Nekofa
|
|
Beit Nekofa (Hebrew: בֵּית נְקוֹפָה) is a moshav in the Jerusalem District of Israel, subordinate to the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council. It was founded in August 1949 by seven families that immigrated from Yugoslavia.
Beit Nekofa is located about 10 km west of central Jerusalem, next to Highway 1 and the Hemed Interchange, between Mevaseret Zion and Kiryat Ye'arim, and just south of Kiryat Anavim.[1]
According to Immanuel HaReuveni, Beit Nekofa's name comes from the ancient settlement Nukveta (Hebrew: נוּקְבְתָא) of Benjamin, mentioned in the Talmud, from where the ancestors of Rabbi Jeuda the Prince are said to come from. Nukveta's name, in turn, comes from the long tunnel (נִקְבָּה, Nikba) in the area.[2]
According to Zev Vilnay, Beit Nekofa was mentioned in the Jerusalem Talmud as the place of residents for a family of Kohanim. The Hebrew root of the name is Nakaf (נ-ק-פ, taken from Joshua 17:6), referring to the collection of olives by means of hitting the tree, as opposed to harvest by hand (the Hebrew root Masak).[3]
The Arabs, however, take the name to come from the word Naqb, meaning (mountain) passage. An Arab village, Bayt Naqquba, existed in the same location until the 1948 Arab–Israeli War when the area came under Israeli control and the villagers were expelled.[2][3][4]
|
||||||||||||||||||||