Gesher, Israel
| Gesher | |
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 Gesher
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| Coordinates: 32°37′16.69″N 35°33′7.56″E / 32.6213028°N 35.5521000°ECoordinates: 32°37′16.69″N 35°33′7.56″E / 32.6213028°N 35.5521000°E | |
| District | Northern |
| Council | Valley of Springs |
| Affiliation | Kibbutz Movement |
| Founded | 1939 |
| Founded by | Hanoar Haoved Movement and immigrants from Germany. |
| Population (2015) | 425 |
| Website | www.gesher.org.il |
Gesher (Hebrew: גֶּשֶׁר, lit. Bridge) is a kibbutz in the Beit She'an Valley in northeastern Israel. Founded in 1939 by immigrants from Germany, it falls under the jurisdiction of Valley of Springs Regional Council. It is situated 10 km south of kibbutz Deganya Aleph and 15 km south of Tiberias. The population is approximately 500 inhabitants. It is named after the neighbouring bridge over the Jordan river ("gesher" means bridge in Hebrew), known as Jisr el-Majami in Arabic and as Gesher Naharayim in Hebrew. The original site of the kibbutz, abandoned after the 1948 war, is known as Old Gesher. In 2015 it had a population of 425.
The kibbutz was founded in 1939 on lands bought with the help of Edmond de Rothschild, by a group of Jews born in Palestine who were members of the youth movement HaNo'ar HaOved and a group of young Jews from Germany. They were later joined by Jewish immigrants from Poland, Germany, Austria and additional Palestinian Jews. The kibbutz grew up near the Naharayim bridge as a settlement.
The site of the kibbutz was a khan from the Mamluk period to the late 18th or early 19th century. Called Jisr el-Majami' (bridge of the meeting), it was one of the earliest khans in the Galilee and was a major crossroads where the north–south Bet She’an–Damascus road intersected the east–west road which led from the Gilead through the Sirin Plateau. Some of the original kibbutz buildings lay within the ruins. There are three bridges at the site - a Byzantine stone bridge, an Ottoman railroad bridge serving the Haifa-Dera'a segment of the Hejaz Railway, and a British Mandate road bridge serving the Haifa-Baghdad highway.
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