Kerem Maharal

Place in Haifa, Israel

32°38′57″N 34°59′31″E / 32.64917°N 34.99194°E / 32.64917; 34.99194CountryIsraelDistrictHaifaCouncilHof HaCarmelAffiliationMoshavim MovementFounded1949Founded byCzechoslovak Jewish immigrantsPopulation

(2022)^[1]

749

Kerem Maharal (Hebrew: כֶּרֶם מַהֲרַ"ל, lit. Maharal Vineyard) is a moshav in northern Israel. Located near Atlit, on the southern side of Mount Carmel, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof HaCarmel Regional Council. In 2022 it had a population of 749.^[1]

History

The moshav was established in 1949 by group of Jewish Holocaust survivors from Czechoslovakia, who immigrated to Israel with the help of the Aliya movement after World War II.

Kerem Maharal was named after legendary 16th century Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, also known by the Hebrew acronym "Maharal" (Moreinu HaRav Loew, translated as Our teacher, the Rabbi Loew). It was built on the site of the depopulated Palestinian Arab villages of Ijzim and Khirbat Al-Manara,^[2]^[3] which were captured by the Israel Defense Forces in Operation Shoter during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.^[4] The residents lived in the Arab stone houses until the 1960s and some of the original structures remain today.^[4]^[5]

Notable residents

Ami Ayalon, former head of Shin Bet

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Kerem Maharal.

^ ^a ^b "Regional Statistics". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
^ Khalidi, Walid (1992). All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. p. 165. ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
^ Khalidi, 1992, p. 176
^ ^a ^b Ein-Gil, Ehud (September 14, 2006). "It takes a village". Haaretz. Retrieved April 23, 2019.
^ Rochelle A. Davis (2011). Palestinian Village Histories. Stanford University Press. p. 162.