Beit Yosef, Israel

Beit Yosef lies north of Beit She’an and east of Route 90, near the Jordan River.[3][1] It is affiliated with Tenu’at ha-Moshavim, the Moshavim Movement, and its name commemorates Israeli labor leader Yosef Aharonovitch.[1] Its history encompasses pre-state Jewish settlement, wartime destruction and reestablishment, and an agricultural economy based principally on livestock and field crops.[1][3]

Administratively, the locality is in Israel’s Northern District, within the Yizre’el subdistrict and Emek HaMa’ayanot Regional Council.[4] It lies east of the Gilboa, toward the Jordan Valley, about a 40-minute drive from the Gilboa Nature Reserve.[5]

Beit Yosef was established on April 9, 1937, at the northern end of the Beit She’an Valley, also referred to in historical accounts as the Beisan Valley.[1][6] Its founding formed part of the Homa u-Migdal, or Tower and Stockade, settlement campaign, during which the pre-state Jewish community established at least 53 settlements in less than three years.[7] A photograph taken on Beit Yosef’s founding day documents the erection of its watchtower.[8]

Jewish land purchases in the valley preceded the settlement’s establishment: by 1935, the Jewish National Fund had acquired 23,000 dunam, while other Jewish organizations had purchased another 2,000 dunam.[6] These holdings were scattered and had Arab tenants.[6] Riots in spring 1936 delayed Jewish settlement on the purchased lands, and the valley’s first kibbutz was established only at the end of that year.[6]

The establishment of Beit Yosef took place amid deliberations over the Royal Commission’s 1937 partition proposal and efforts to change the proposed boundaries.[6] Jewish settlement in the valley was sparse, and Zionist leaders sought both to secure purchased lands amid widespread violence and to strengthen the case for including the valley in the proposed Jewish state.[6] The settlement strategy placed Beit Yosef at the valley’s northern end, Tirat Zvi at its southern end, and Maoz Chaim at its eastern end, with settlement of the interior intended to follow.[6] Settlement activity thus accompanied political efforts over the boundaries and took on a direct political role in 1937–38.[6]

In April 1937, Yosef Weitz, head of the Jewish National Fund’s Land Department, expressed the aim of creating “a network of Jewish settlements from one end of the valley to the other” to prevent the valley’s exclusion from the proposed Jewish state.[6]

Beit Yosef was among the places photographed in a 1937 aerial-photography initiative undertaken by Salman Schocken with photographer Zoltan Kluger and publisher Nachman Shifrin.[9] The project produced the first nonmilitary aerial-photography series of the Land of Israel, including views of sites in the Beit She’an Valley.[9] Its carefully prepared albums contained 40 selected images.[9] Restrictions on civil aviation during World War II subsequently brought a ban on aerial photography, leaving the project as the country’s sole nonmilitary aerial documentation for many years.[9]

Riverbank engineering was another feature of the settlement’s early history.[2] Dov Kovlenov’s first project strengthened the banks of the Jordan beside Beit Yosef’s Water Institute, saving the institute from collapse.[2] Photographs from 1942 documented stabilization work along the river near the moshav.[2]

During the 1948 War of Independence, Beit Yosef was badly damaged in battles with Jordanian and Iraqi forces and was abandoned.[3] Immigrants from Kurdistan and Iraq reestablished it in 1951.[3] A Palestinian Media Watch translation of a PA TV segment attributed a 1966 terrorist attack on Beit Yosef, in which three people were wounded, to Fatah commander Abu Ali Iyad.[10] After the Six-Day War in June 1967, the settlement frequently suffered Jordanian artillery fire and acts of sabotage.[1]

The provisional locality data for 2023 recorded a total population of 598 in Beit Yosef, comprising 491 Israelis and 107 foreigners.[4] All 491 Israelis were recorded in the statistical category “Jews and others.”[4]

Earlier census figures recorded 130 residents in 1948, 283 in 1961, 342 in 1972, 331 in 1983, and 271 in 1995.[11] The population was approximately 350 in 2002 and 348 on December 31, 2004.[1][12] In 2004, it was listed as part of the Beth-Shean Valley Regional Council.[12]

The community reestablished in 1951 included immigrants from Kurdistan and Iraq.[3] The moshav’s inhabitants were described as originating from Kurdistan.[1]

Beit Yosef’s economy was based mainly on livestock and field crops, including cotton.[1] It is affiliated with the Moshavim Movement.[1]

Mishak Eliyahu is an agricultural food venture in the center of the moshav.[13] Its founder, Eliran, established the farm after nearly 300 days of reserve military service to connect local agriculture and cuisine.[13] The venture’s name honors his grandfather, who was also a farmer.[13]

A security building erected in the center of Beit Yosef in 1937 provided protection for moshav members during attacks, some of which caused deaths.[7] Its design drew inspiration from British police forts associated with officer Charles Tegart.[7] The building’s International Style features included simple forms, clean straight lines, white plaster, and upper-floor balconies opening toward the landscape.[7]

Over time, the security building also served as a school and a grocery shop before being abandoned.[7] A proposal to renovate it as a visitors’ center about the locality was likewise abandoned.[7]

Beit Yosef and neighboring Yardena share a memorial to residents of both communities who fell in Israel’s wars.[3] It stands in the courtyard of their joint community center, between the two moshavim.[3]