Meir Shfeya

The site of Meir Shfeya was once a Muslim village named Shefeia,{{Cite journal|last=Marom|first=Roy|date=2021-06-09|title=The Abu Hameds of Mulabbis: an oral history of a Palestinian village depopulated in the Late Ottoman period|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13530194.2021.1934817|journal=British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies|volume=50 |pages=87–106|doi=10.1080/13530194.2021.1934817|s2cid=236222143|issn=1353-0194|url-access=subscription}} meaning "the edge or margin".{{cite book|last=Palmer|first=E.H.|author-link=Edward Henry Palmer|year=1881|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp00conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Arabic and English Name Lists Collected During the Survey by Lieutenants Conder and Kitchener, R. E. Transliterated and Explained by E.H. Palmer|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund|page=[https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp00conduoft#page/152/mode/1up 152]}} In 1859, the population was given as 100, who cultivated 11 feddans of land.{{cite book|last1=Conder|first1=C.R.|authorlink1=Claude Reignier Conder|last2=Kitchener|first2=H.H.|authorlink2=Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|year=1882|url=https://archive.org/details/surveyofwesternp02conduoft|title=The Survey of Western Palestine: Memoirs of the Topography, Orography, Hydrography, and Archaeology|location=London|publisher=Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund|volume=2|page=[https://archive.org/stream/surveyofwesternp02conduoft#page/43/mode/1up 43]}} In 1882, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) described as "a small village with a well to the north." A population list from about 1887 showed that Shefeia had about 130 inhabitants, all Muslims.{{cite journal | last = Schumacher | first =G.| author-link = Gottlieb Schumacher | title = Population list of the Liwa of Akka | journal = Quarterly Statement - Palestine Exploration Fund | volume = 20 |url=https://archive.org/details/quarterlystateme19pale | year = 1888|page=[https://archive.org/stream/quarterlystateme19pale#page/n205/mode/1up 180]}}

Modern Meir Shfeya was established in 1891 as a moshava adjacent to Zikhron Ya'akov. The name is a combination of Meir, named for Amschel Mayer (Meir) Rothschild, the grandfather of Baron Rothschild, and Shefeia.Palestine Exploration Fund, map 8. In 1904 Israel Belkind, a founder of Bilu, established an educational institute in the village under the name Kiryat Sefer,[http://www.ynet.co.il/english/articles/0,7340,L-3712819,00.html Orphanage which became a youth village] Ynetnews which took in orphans from the Kishinev pogrom. This made it the first youth village in the country.

In 1917 the Herzliya Hebrew High School was temporarily moved to the village due to the expulsion of Jews from Tel Aviv and Jaffa during World War I. World War I left many orphaned children in Jerusalem. A girls school called Aliza's care center, established in the yard of the Diskin Orphanage on Nevi'im Street with funding from the American Zionist women's organization, Hadassah, moved to Shfeya in 1923.

In the Mandatory era, the 1922 census of Palestine attributed a population of 81 to Meiriya (Shafiya), of which 38 were Muslims and 43 were Jews,{{cite book | editor =Barron, J.B. | title = Palestine: Report and General Abstracts of the Census of 1922 |url=https://archive.org/details/PalestineCensus1922 |publisher = Government of Palestine | year = 1923|page=[https://archive.org/stream/PalestineCensus1922/Palestine%20Census%20%281922%29#page/n36/mode/1up 34]}} increasing sharply in the 1931 census to 208; 40 Muslims and 168 Jews, in a total of 18 houses.{{cite book | editor = Mills, E. | title = Census of Palestine 1931. Population of Villages, Towns and Administrative Areas |url=https://archive.org/details/CensusOfPalestine1931.PopulationOfVillagesTownsAndAdministrativeAreas%2096 | publisher = Government of Palestine | location = Jerusalem | year = 1932|page=96}}

In 1929, the annual convention of Junior Hadassah voted to acquire a farm at Rabia, near Meier Shefaya, where graduates of the school would engage in agriculture. A budget of $7,500 was allotted for this project over a period of three years until the farm became self-supporting.[https://www.jta.org/1929/07/07/archive/junior-hadassah-creates-new-palestine-project Junior Hadassah creates new Palestine project]

On 28 August 1929, the British police ordered the evacuation of the village to protect residents as the 1929 Palestine Riots engulfed the country. (28 August 1929). [https://www.jta.org/archive/jerusalem-faced-grave-crisis-tuesday-noon-as-arabs-renewed-attacks Jerusalem Faced Grave Crisis Tuesday Noon As Arabs Renewed Attacks] The Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved on 22 February 2025

By the 1945 statistics the village had a population of 330, all Jews.{{cite book|title=Village Statistics, April, 1945 |url=http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/Hebrew/library/Pages/BookReader.aspx?pid=856390|author=Department of Statistics|year=1945|publisher=Government of Palestine|page=[http://users.cecs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/yabber/census/VSpages/VS1945_p14.jpg 14]}}

The village was used as a training base by the Haganah due to its remote location in a mountainous area. In 1957 it was made a partnership between the State and the organisation, and today exists as a youth village.[http://www.shfeyah.org.il/%D7%9B%D7%A4%D7%A8-%D7%94%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%A2%D7%A8/ A little history] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170725192358/http://www.shfeyah.org.il/%D7%9B%D7%A4%D7%A8-%D7%94%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%A2%D7%A8/ |date=2017-07-25 }} Meir Shfeya

Image:PikiWiki Israel 12917 Settlements in Israel.jpg|Meir Shfeya in 1925

File:Fureidis 1938.jpg|Meir Shfeya (Shefeya) 1938 1:20,000

File:Jaba 1945.jpg|Meir Shfeya (Shefeiya) 1945 1:250,000

File:Meir Shefeya.jpg|Meir Shfeya youth village. Palmach archive photograph. 1946

• Sara Levi-Tanai, choreographer and songwriter

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.shfeyah.org.il Official website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100420195610/http://www.shfeyah.org.il/ |date=2010-04-20 }}
• Survey of Western Palestine, Map 8: [https://web.archive.org/web/20141015091439/http://www.iaa-archives.org.il/zoom/zoom.aspx?folder_id=93&type_id=6&id=8389 IAA], [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Survey_of_Western_Palestine_1880.08.jpg Wikimedia commons]

{{Hof HaCarmel Regional Council}}

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Category:Youth villages in Israel

Category:Jewish villages in the Ottoman Empire

Category:1891 establishments in the Ottoman Empire

Category:Populated places established in 1891

Category:Populated places in Haifa District

Category:Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America