{{Short description|Agricultural settlement north of Safed}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}} {{Infobox settlement | name = Ein Zeitim | native_name = עין זיתים | native_name_lang = he | settlement_type = Agricultural settlement | image_skyline = Ein Zeitim ii.jpg | established_title = First established | established_date = 1891 | founder = Dorshei Zion society from Minsk | population_total = 100 | population_as_of = 1947 | area_total_km2 = 4.3 | pushpin_map = Israel northeast | pushpin_label_position = bottom | coordinates = {{Coord|32|59|50|N|35|29|9|E}} | subdivision_type = Country | subdivision_name = Ottoman Empire (1891–1917) | subdivision_type1 = Subsequent countries | subdivision_name1 = * Mandatory Palestine (1917–1948) * Israel (1948–1951) | other_name = Spring of Olives | footnotes = Eventually ceased to be populated and became part of a military base. }}

'''Ein Zeitim''' ({{langx|he|עין זיתים}}, lit. ''Spring of Olives'') was a Jewish agricultural settlement about {{Convert|2|km}} north of Safed established in 1891 that carried on the name of a historic Jewish community dating back to the Middle Ages.<ref>{{cite book|author=Jacob Goldstein|title=From fighters to soldiers: how the Israeli defense forces began|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=9FjbCXPixYIC&pg=PA9|accessdate=16 May 2011|date=April 1998|publisher=Sussex Academic Press|isbn=978-1-902210-02-5|pages=9–}}</ref> The community ultimately faded out, facing a combination of agricultural challenges, a declining population after World War I and the departure of the remaining inhabitants after three residents were killed in the 1929 Palestine riots. An Israel Defense Forces military base was later established at the site.

==History== thumb| The three locations of Ein Zeitim on a map published in 1952. From bottom to top, medieval ('Ein az-Zeitun), 1891 and 1946. The green highlights show 1940s village boundaries. The original Ein Zeitim was inhabited by Jews in the 11th century. By the 16th century, 40 Musta'arabi Jewish families lived there, and a yeshiva was founded there by Moshe ben Machir. Further Jews moved to Ein Zeitim after the damaging 1837 Galilee earthquake.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=EIN ZEITIM |url=https://judaism_enc.en-academic.com/5568/EIN_ZEITIM |access-date=2026-04-24 |website=Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias |language=en}}</ref>thumb|Villages around Safad, 1945

The new Ein Zeitim was founded in 1891 by members of the Dorshei Zion (Seekers of Zion) society, a Zionist pioneer group from Minsk.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite journal | url=https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10835-007-9045-4 | doi=10.1007/s10835-007-9045-4 | title=Jewish rural settlement in Cyprus 1882–1935: A "springboard" or a destiny? | date=2007 | last1=Ben-Artzi | first1=Yossi | journal=Jewish History | volume=21 | issue=3–4 | pages=361–383 | s2cid=154272861 | url-access=subscription }}</ref> Sender Trovitz, a merchant and civic leader of nearby Safed, was among those who purchased land and helped develop the Ein Zeitim colony.<ref>[https://www.tidhar.tourolib.org/tidhar/view/1/449 Sender Trovitz], ''Encyclopedia of the Founders and Builders of Israel''. Accessed April 28, 2026.</ref> Despite strong opposition by the government of the Ottoman Empire, the settlers established farms with olive groves, orchards and dairy and poultry.<ref name="JNF 1948">{{cite book | title=Jewish Villages in Israel | author=Jewish National Fund | author-link=Jewish National Fund | year=1949 | publisher=Hamadpis Liphshitz Press | location=Jerusalem | pages=40–41}}</ref>

Ein Zeitim was built {{convert|800|m}} north of the Arab village Ein al-Zeitun, which had commonly been called Ein Zeitim in Hebrew and had been a mixed Arab-Jewish village during the Middle Ages.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Alex Carmel |author2=Peter Schafer |author3=Yossi Ben-Artzi | title = The Jewish Settlement in Palestine, 634-1881 | publisher = Wiesbaden : Reichert | year = 1990 | pages = 94}}; for location, "Safad 1:100000" map by Dept. of Lands &amp; Surveys, 1935.</ref>

A group of laborers bought {{Convert|430|ha}} of land about {{Convert|3|km}} north of Safed from speculators who had first purchased the land in 1891. Unable to work the land properly, the new owners transferred it to Baron de Rothschild, with whose assistance 750,000 vines and many fruit-trees were planted in the course of six or seven years, and during this time a number of houses were built. The population in 1898 was 51.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1901 |title=Agricultural Colonies in Palestine |encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=907&letter=A&search=zeitun |last=Rosenthal |first=Herman |volume=1}}</ref>

The village was abandoned during the first World War and only a handful of residents returned at the end of the war.<ref name=PP1>{{cite news|title = Three new villages in N. Palestine | newspaper = Palestine Post | date = 18 January 1946 | page = 1}}</ref> The 1922 census of Palestine recorded a population of 37 inhabitants, consisting of 30 Jews and 7 Muslims.<ref name="Census1922">{{cite book | editor = J. B. Barron | title = Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922 | publisher = Government of Palestine | year = 1923 | at = p. 41 Table XI }}</ref> During the 1929 Palestine riots, three residents were killed and the remainder left.<ref name=PP1/> Six Muslims and one Jew were recorded there in 1931, living in four houses.<ref name="Census1931">{{cite book | editor = E. Mills | title = Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas | publisher = Government of Palestine | location = Jerusalem | year = 1932 | page = 106}}</ref> An attempt to revive the village in 1933 failed.<ref name=PP1/> thumb|250px|Builders in Kibbutz Ein Zeitim, 1947

In 1946 the village was reestablished after the Jewish National Fund acquired the land.<ref name=PP1/> It had a population of 100 in 1947,<ref name="JNF 1948"/> but by the end of 1951 the population had fallen to 40.<ref>Government of Israel, ''Government Year-book 5713 (1952)'', Supplement page VI.</ref> Eventually, it ceased to be populated and it became part of a military base.{{Citation needed|date=April 2026}} thumb|View of Ein Zeitim. 1947

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{Cite book|author1=Frederick Martin|author2=Sir John Scott Keltie|author3=Isaac Parker Anderson Renwick |author4=Mortimer Epstein |author5=Sigfrid Henry Steinberg |author6=John Paxton|title=The Statesman's year-book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TR8NAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA1372|accessdate=16 May 2011|year=1922|publisher=St. Martin's Press|pages=1372–}} * {{Cite book|author=Arthur Koestler|title=Promise and fulfilment: Palestine 1917-1949|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=KoVtAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=16 May 2011|year=1983|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-333-35152-9}} * {{Cite book|author1=Fred Skolnik|author2=Michael Berenbaum|title=Encyclopaedia Judaica|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=JD0OAQAAMAAJ|accessdate=16 May 2011|year=2007|publisher=Macmillan Reference USA in association with the Keter Pub. House|isbn=978-0-02-865943-5}} * {{Cite book|author=J. Bowyer Bell|title=The long war: Israel and the Arabs since 1946|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ubFtAAAAMAAJ|accessdate=16 May 2011|year=1969|publisher=Prentice-Hall|isbn=9780135406175 }}

==External links== *[http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/Ludza/Rezekne/EinZaitim/EZ_history.html Ein Zeitim in history]

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Category:Former kibbutzim Category:Populated places established in 1891 Category:Jewish villages in the Ottoman Empire Category:Jewish villages in Mandatory Palestine Category:1891 establishments in the Ottoman Empire Category:1929 Palestine riots