Ma'oz Ḥayyim
MA'OZ ḤAYYIM
MA'OZ ḤAYYIM (Heb. מָעוֹז חַיִּים), kibbutz in central Israel, in the Beth-Shean Valley near the Jordan River, affiliated to Ha-Kibbutz ha-Me'uḥad. It was founded in 1937 during the 1936–39 Arab riots, as the first *stockade and watchtower village east of Beth-Shean, by four groups, three of whom set out a few months later to establish further kibbutz outposts: *Kefar Ruppin, *Mesillot, and *Neveh Eitan. Most of the founders of Ma'oz Ḥayyim were Israel-born. In the Israel *War of Independence (1948), the kibbutz held an advanced defense position; it again suffered repeated shelling in the period after the *Six-Day War (1967). The kibbutz economy was based on field crops, fruit orchards, carp ponds, dairy cattle, and a factory for packaging materials. Nearby, the Ma'oz Bridge (known in Arabic as Jisr e-Shaikh Husain) spans the Jordan, over what is assumedly the ford used by the Midianites in their flight from Gideon's army; by Pompey in 63 b.c.e.; by the Arab-Muslim army in 635 c.e.; and by Saladin in 1187 when he invaded the country. Today the bridge serves a transit point between Israel and Jordan. The name, "Ḥayyim's Stronghold," commemorates Ḥayyim *Sturman, a Ha-Shomer veteran killed by Arabs on a land-purchasing mission in the Beth-Shean Valley. In 2002 the population of Ma'oz Ḥayyim was 596.
[Efram Orni /
Shaked Gilboa (2nd ed.)]