Ramat Yishai (, Jesse's Heights; ) is a town in the Northern District of Israel, located on the side of the Haifa–Nazareth road about eastern to Kiryat Tivon. It was originally established as Manor in 1925 on land purchased from the Arab village of Jeida. The town achieved local council status in 1958. In it had a population of .
Name The town is named for the Jewish teacher and philanthropist Yisrael Yehudah "Yishai" Adler, who was among the founders of Tel Aviv, and who in 1943 donated funds that were crucial to the town's survival after it was attacked by Arab raiders during the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine.Jeida - Ramat Yishai, Davar (Sept. 8, 1943) This name replaced the official Arabic name Jeida in 1943. Prior to that it was also colloquially called ‘’Manor’’.Gili Heskin, From Manor to Ramat Yishai, 71 Horizons in Geography pp. 160-184 (2008)Jewish Progress in 5694, The Palestine Post (Sept. 9, 1934)
History Archaeological remnants have been found from Middle Bronze Age I (a tomb) and the Roman, Byzantine, Umayyad and Abbasid eras. Of particular interest, was a zoomorphic vessel of glass, dating to the Umayyad era. Remains from the Crusades, as well as from the Mamluk era has also been found here.Porat, 06/02/2007, Ramat Yishay
In 1875 Victor Guérin found rock-cut cisterns in the area that have been repeatedly dug up, concluding that the examined archeological site must be an ancient one. Guérin identified the site with the ancient Israelite city of Idalah, a part of the inheritance of the Tribe of Zebulon.Guérin, 1880, p. 392Conder and Kitchener, 1881, SWP I, p. 308Idalah is mentioned in Book of Joshua 19:15, "Included were Kattath, Nahalal, Shimron, Idalah, and Bethlehem; there were twelve cities, along with their villages."
Ottoman era During the Ottoman era, an Arab village existed on the lands where Ramat Yishai is currently located. the village's name was Jeida (sometimes spelled in English as Jayda,Rohde, 1979, p. 82 GeidaKarmon, 1960, p. 163 or JeddaBetting on the Trans-Israel Highway The Jerusalem Post) which possibly meant "long-necked" in Arabic as a description of a previous inhabitant of the village or land,According to Palmer, 1881, p. 109 or an Arabicization of the Hebrew name Idalah.
Jeida was first mentioned in the Ottoman defter for the year 1555–6, named Jayda, located in the Nahiya of Tabariyya of the Liwa of Safad, and with its land designated as Ziamet land. The village appeared as Geida on the map which Pierre Jacotin compiled in 1799. In 1881, the PEF's Survey of Western Palestine (SWP) found that the village was much like the nearby village Al-Harithiyah, described as "A miserable hamlet of mud". A spring was mentioned to be 3/4 of a mile to the west.
Around the late 19th century, the lands of the Jezreel Valley, including the village, were purchased from the Ottoman Empire by members of the Lebanese Greek Orthodox Christian Tueni family, which later partnered with the Sursuk family from Beirut to manage the land. The landowners either financed the construction or the renovation of the Ramat Yishai Khan, after which it was used as the residence of the foreman who oversaw farmhands working their lands. The building was colloquially identified as a Persian Khan, a travelers' inn.Esther Nitzani, The Khan that Survived in the Valley, Davar (Nov. 3, 1975)Zeev Vilnai, The Building in Ramat Yishai, Davar (Nov. 14, 1975)
British Mandate era
In 1925, the Tueni and Sursuk families sold the lands, a total of 15,000 dunams, to the Zion Society of America, a private Zionist organization. The lands were sold to the Manor Company, a cooperative of Polish Jewish weavers from Łódź that immigrated to Palestine. Manor was also to be the name of the planned socialist textile factory town, similar to the New Lanark project in Scotland.List of villages sold by Sursocks and their partners to the Zionists since British occupation of Palestine, evidence to the Shaw Commission, 1930'Manor' Moshav in Jida, Davar (Aug. 12, 1926) The hope was to create a European-scaled textile center similar to the Jewish textile industry in Poland at the time, and was deemed to be a model project of industrial settlement in Palestine. Haim Weizman deemed Manor to be "one of the most important projects in Palestine".
The British government established a Police post in the village, as early as 1930.Policeman's Promotion, The Palestine Bulletin (Aug. 28, 1930)
The Manor Company established a textile mill in Manor, the first of its kind in Mandatory Palestine,Ramat Yishai (formerly Jeida), Davar (Oct. 24, 1951) and additional 18 shacks used as housing for the mill's workers, a shared kitchen, a school, and a cow shed. five shallow wells were dug to provide drinking water for the 251 factory workers that moved to Manor by 1926. The mill was initially unsuccessful. by 1928 the mill's assets were sold by auction, and only 22 families remained in the village,Industry in Jeida, Davar (Sept. 2, 1928) subsisting mostly from grain agriculture, with a fludgling milking industry.In the Emek: Jeida, Davar (Sept. 2, 1930)
In June 1931 the remaining assets of the textile mill were bought by the Nul company.In the Village: Jeida Textile Mill in New hands, Davar (Oct. 2, 1933) Nul partnered with the Tel-Aviv Based Gerev company to reestablish the mill, to moderate initial success. The mill is credited as instrumental in the development of industry in Mandatory Palestine, particularly in the training of technical and industrial experts that went on to found, operate and manage factories throughout Israel.
in 1933, some of the lands owned by the village were expropriated by the government for the construction of the Kirkuk–Haifa oil pipeline.
During the Arab Revolt the isolated Jewish population in Manor and the surrounding area was subject to constant attacks, sniper fire and ambushes from armed militias of local Arabs.Two Wounded in Bus Ambush, The Palestine Post (July 24, 1938) On 12 October 1936 the villager Mordechai Feldman was ambushed and killed. On the night of 5 June 1938, armed Arabs attacked the Jews in the village again, killed one of the volunteer notrim, Zvi Levine, wounded another, and burned down the textile mill and other buildings.Zeev Aner (1994) Stories from Eretz Israel,Zvi Levine Izkor Due to the attacks, Manor was almost abandoned, with the 9 remaining families abandoning their homes to seek shelter in the Khan, and petitioned Zionist organizations to provide relief.Yeruham, What Will Become of Jeida?, Davar (Aug. 16, 1938) The textile mill was liquidated in 1937.In the Matter of Jedda Textile Works LTD, The Palestine Post (Apr. 15, 1937)
In 1943, one of Tel Aviv's founders, the Jewish philanthropist Yisrael Yehudah "Yishai" Adler pledged a donation of 10,000 Pounds to construct permanent homes for the textile mill workers and public buildings in Manor. The village was renamed in his honour shortly thereafter. Construction began on January 25, 1944.Ramat Yishai Homes' Cornerstone, Davar (Jan. 26, 1944) A synogauge and clinic were built in 1947.[-- In the Village: A Double Celebration in Ramat Yishai], Davar (Aug. 24, 1947)
State of Israel by 1949, the village grew to a total of 45 families, mostly employed by the textile mill.Lack of Housing Limits Aliya to Ramat Yishai, Davar (May 24, 1949) in 1950 a 200-family Ma'abara, a refugee tent city, was created by the state nearby. At that time that more than doubled the population of the town.Olim Camp in Nahalal, Davar (June 21, 1950) Three years later the tent city was demolished as the refugees were resettled in Migdal Haemek.The Town Founded by Mistake - And Doomed to Fail, Maariv (Jan. 9, 1959)
the 1950s were met by an economic and population expansion. the town grew to more than 200 families, and several new industries were established, including a cooperative bakery and the Newe Ya’ar Agricultural Research Center. in an effort to attract private industrial entrepreneurs, the town dedicated a designated industrial zone north of the town. The town was also first connected to the national electric and water grids. However, the local textile mill, while operating so far, remained unseccessful and ultimetly defuncted in 1959,The Mills Organized - The Weavers Suffered, Maariv (Oct. 9, 1959) leaving two thirds of the town unemployed.Most of Ramat Yishai's People are Unemployed, Maariv (Jan. 17, 1961)
Since the 1990s, Ramat Yishai has undergone rapid development. In 2010, the population was estimated at close to 7,000 people, with 1,800 households at the high end of the socioeconomic scale.
Local government and politics the town was originally part of the . The regional council mostly governed agricultural settlements, like the surrounding Kibbutzim and Moshavim, and the industrial Ramat Yishai was an outlier. The town claimed it was substantially underfunded and underrepresented, and began demanding its independence in the 1950s.Yossi Beilin, White Robe to the Mayor, Davar (July 27, 1973) Additionally, a desire to double the size of the town in the following years required additional local authorities.Ramat Yishai Demands Expansion and Independence, Davar (June 21, 1954) In 1958, during its 32 anniversary celebrations, the town was elevated to local council status.A Local Council Was Created in Ramat Yishai, Davar (Nov. 28, 1958)
The first mayor, Amnon Yanai, was elected on behalf of the local branch of Mapai, the ruling political party in Israel at the time. The mayor was ousted in 1962 due to the council's failure to fulfil its stated goal to double the population of the town. The Ministry of the Interior appointed an interim council and mayor, the local nurse Yehudith Shoshani, also from Mapai. Shoshani was the first female mayor in Israel. Yanai's brother and former Mapai member, Oded Yanai, founded an opposition party name Le'Maan Ramat Yishai (For Ramat Yishai) which managed to form a coalition after the 1965 elections. During 1967 Yanai had a change of heart, rejoined Mapai, resigned as mayor, and designated Shoshani as the interim mayor for a second time. in the 1969 elections Mapai, headed by Shoshani, managed to form a coalition government with Le'Maan Ramat Yishai. This made Shoshani the first elected female mayor in Israel. The political drama continued as a year following the elections both council members from Mapai, now the Israeli Labor Party, resigned due to "personal reasons". The national and local opposition party Gahal formed a coalition and named Zelda Kramer, also a female nurse, as the new mayor. Shoshani was reelected in 1967, defeating Kramer by 2 votes.A Woman Will Continue to Run Ramat yishai, Maariv (Jan. 13, 1974) Shoshani ultimately resigned on September 2, 1976, and was replaced by her party member, Moshe Zeidner.Official Gazette, p. 172 (Nov. 4, 1976)
Mayors Below is a list of mayors since the town became a local council: + Mayors of Ramat YishaiMayor Party Took office Left office 1 Amnon Yanai Mapai December 1959 November 1962 2 Yehudith Shoshani Mapai November 1962 November 1965 3 Oded Yanai Le'Maan Ramat Yishai November 1965 1967 4 Yehudith Shoshani Mapai 1967 1970 5 Zelda Kramer Gahal 1970 January 1974 6 Yehudith Shoshani Labor January 1974 September 2, 1976 7 Moshe Zeidner Labor September 2, 1976 October 1978 8 Dror Vogel Likud October 1978 November 1993 9 Zeev Schwartz November 1993 November 1998 10 Nir Havkin Likud November 1998 November 2008 11 Ofer Ben Eliezer Rama (Yesh Atid affiliated) November 2008 March 2024 12 Assaf Oberlander Toshavim Ve'Totzaot March 2024 Present
Before 1959, the local government was headed by a Mukhtar.Barron,Social and Personal, The Palestine Post (Aug. 6, 1936)
Voting Patterns