Ramat Raziel

Ramat Raziel lies in the Judean Hills region of Israel, on the Ẓobah–Eshtaol road northeast of Beit Shemesh and approximately eight kilometers east of the Eshta'ol Junction, beside Route 395.[1][2] It falls within the jurisdiction of the Matteh Yehudah Regional Council.[7] The Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research's statistical yearbooks for both 2018 and 2022 list the moshav among localities in the Jerusalem metropolitan area, organized by rings, sections, and locality type.[5][6]

Ramat Raziel was established in October 1948 by veterans of the Irgun and a Betar nucleus, making it the first moshav founded by Irgun members.[3] Its founding came during the War of Independence, after the Jerusalem Corridor had been opened through months of fighting; the moshav was among the first settlements intended to secure that corridor.[1] The terrain posed particular challenges from the outset, as the farmland required heavy reclamation, and the settlement was included in a work-village scheme to aid its development.[1]

The moshav was named for David Raziel, commander of the Irgun, who was killed on May 20, 1941, when the vehicle in which he was traveling was struck during a German bombing attack. He had gone to Iraq on a British military intelligence mission with three comrades.[4][2] The choice of name carried deliberate significance for the founders: they were Irgun veterans who sought to demonstrate that Irgun members — not only those affiliated with the Labor movement — could undertake settlement projects.[3]

The National Library of Israel's educational page dates the ceremony marking the move onto the land to January 18, 1949, while its catalog record for the invitation lists January 16, 1949; the discrepancy is unresolved.[3][8] Menachem Begin and Yaakov Meridor, both former Irgun commanders, attended the gathering.[3] The event was also a political meeting: invitations addressed soldiers and young people belonging to the Herut movement and called on them to discuss that movement's role in future settlement activity.[3] The invitation described travel to the new moshav by "buses and trucks" departing from Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.[3]

The naming of the moshav was contested. Settlement institutions sought to call it Kisalon, but the Irgun veterans opposed that name because they viewed it as a deliberate attempt to erase David Raziel's memory. The institutions instead assigned the name Kisalon to a nearby moshav previously known as Shufa, which the National Library says explains why both names appear on the founding invitation.[3]

The Library also notes that the use of the Hebrew word nekuda — meaning "point" or "outpost" — may have been intended to challenge the Labor movement's perceived monopoly over Zionist settlement activity.[3] It presents the episode as reflecting broader tensions between Irgun members and the established Jewish communal leadership after Israel's establishment, including after Jerusalem's Irgun members were integrated into the Israel Defense Forces.[3]

Ramat Raziel began with a recorded population of just 7 inhabitants in 1948, growing over subsequent decades.[9] Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics recorded 113 residents in 1961, 160 in 1972, 256 in 1983, and 322 in 1995.[9] The Encyclopaedia Judaica reports 135 inhabitants in 1970 and 382 in 2002.[1] An Israel place list recorded 425 inhabitants as of December 31, 2004.[7]

In 2001, the moshav association began infrastructure work for 70 plots sold for expansion.[10] In 2009, winery CEO Ariel Ben-Zaken said that 72 families held agricultural plots while the expanded community had about 120 families; these were his reported figures rather than an official demographic count.[11]

Agriculture has been central to Ramat Raziel since its founding, though the sector's composition has shifted over time. The moshav's farming was historically based on deciduous-fruit orchards, vineyards, and poultry.[1] The demanding terrain, which required significant land reclamation, shaped the work-village scheme under which it was organized.[1]

In 1988, amid declining prospects for conventional agriculture, moshav member Eli Ben-Zaken converted his chicken coops to wine-grape cultivation, and four years later established the Castel winery.[10] The winery became a well-known boutique producer; the Encyclopaedia Judaica notes that a Ramat Raziel settler owned it.[1] Ariel Ben-Zaken, the winery's CEO in 2009, argued that the moshav's agricultural land and rural character provided a foundation for local livelihoods, including wine production.[11]

Ramat Raziel also became home to the workshop of Michah and Shoshanna Harrari, who handcrafted harps there for forty years before the workshop was destroyed in the 2021 wildfire.[12]

Globes described a prolonged dispute between the Ben-Zaken family and the moshav association over the winery's construction and operations. The association objected to construction beyond the approved area and to visitor activity, while the family defended its use of the site. The report said that the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court ordered the family to seal part of the wine cellar and pay compensation to the association and the Israel Land Administration.[11]

Ein Raziel is a layered spring on the moshav's northern slopes whose waters flow into two small pools.[13] Both the spring and the moshav are named for David Raziel, the Irgun commander killed in Iraq during the Second World War.[13] Before the 2021 wildfire, the spring's surroundings were wooded and known for rare strawberry trees with distinctive red trunks, Mediterranean woodland, a fig tree, and wildlife including endangered hyenas.[13]

In August 2021, a major wildfire swept through the Jerusalem Hills, and Ramat Raziel was among the communities most directly affected. Residents were ordered to evacuate, with reports indicating that approximately 2,000 people were evacuated from Ramat Raziel and neighboring communities as flames reached homes and residential yards.[14][15] Resident Beni Dudkevich described smoke and fire throughout the moshav, with chicken coops burning and residents attempting to fight the blaze with garden hoses.[15] Fire department spokesman Dedi Simhi stated that the fire was human-caused, though investigators had not yet determined whether it resulted from arson or negligence.[14]

Reports differed on the number of structures affected. The Times of Israel reported that four homes caught fire and suffered significant damage, while The Jerusalem Post reported that two homes were gutted.[16][14] The Kedoshim Forest, which extends from the Mateh Yehuda region toward Beit Shemesh and was begun in 1951 by the Jewish National Fund and B'nai B'rith in memory of Holocaust victims — with approximately six million trees — suffered more than 6,000 acres charred in the blaze.[12]

Among the losses was the harp workshop of Michah and Shoshanna Harrari, who had crafted harps in Ramat Raziel for forty years before the fire destroyed the workshop entirely. Their adjacent home survived; Shoshanna said the flames halted approximately two meters from their front door after her husband tried to protect the house.[12]

The fire also severely damaged the natural environment around Ein Raziel, incinerating much of the Mediterranean woodland and strawberry-tree habitat that had made it a local landmark. An ecologist quoted in post-fire coverage recommended allowing the burned area to recover naturally and monitoring its vegetation, soil, and wildlife over several years.[13]