“The Rise and Fall of the Baha'i settlements in the Jordan Valley, 1880-1950" by Dr Shay Rozen

Описание: Among the many religious groups that were active in nineteenth-century Palestine, the Baha'i community was one of the smallest. Since 1868, this religious community has established its presence around the bay of Haifa. The Baha'i' Holy Places in Haifa and the western Galilee were announced as "world heritage sites", by UNESCO, in 2008. Unlike many of the Baha'i properties in Palestine, the story of the Baha'i settlements in the Jordan valley is almost unknown. During the 1880 three settlements were established at the eastern and southern shores of Lake Tiberias: Umm-Jūna, Es-Samrā and Nuqeib. A fourth settlement, El-Adasiye, was established, at the first years of the twenty century, near the Yarmuk River. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, portions of the Baha'i's land in the Jordan valley were sold to the Zionist organizations and the kibbutzim of Deganya aleph, Deganya beth, Ein Gev et cetera were built on these lands. During the 1948 war, the Baha'i settlers of Nuqeib were ordered by the local HaHagana commander to evacuate. Since they weren’t allowed to return to these lands after the war ended, they were compensated by land near Acre. The Baha'i lands of Es-Samrā, that were part of the demilitarized zones, were bought by the Israeli government and their owners left the state. The inhabitants of El-Adasiye, the last Baha'i settlement in the area, left the village in 1960 and spread all over Jordan and the Baha'i settlements in the Jordan valley become an unknown part of both local and Israeli history.

I received my PhD from the University of Haifa. My research field for both M.A & PhD is the Baha'i community and its presence in the land of Israel between 1868-1968. In recent years, I've presented papers at international conferences (Association for Israel Studies, Irfan Colloquium for Study of the Baha'i Faith, International Society for Iranian Studies, Association for Baha'i Studies, Royal Geographical Society, Conference of Historical Geographers et cetera) all over the world and published articles on different topics related to my research field.