The Enduring Presence: Jewish Life and Land Ownership in Galilee, Judea, and Samaria Before 1948

For millennia, the Jewish people have preserved an unbroken connection to their ancestral homeland. Even amid conquest, exile, and persecution, Jewish families continued to live, pray, and farm the land of Israel — particularly in Galilee, Judea, and Samaria.

Long before the founding of the modern State of Israel in 1948, Jews maintained physical presence, land ownership, and community life across these regions. Historical records, travelers’ testimonies, and Ottoman and British documents all confirm this remarkable continuity. 

The story of Jewish life in the land before 1948 is not one of return after total absence, but of reawakening after endurance — a restoration of a people who never left.

1. The Biblical Foundation of Jewish Presence

The roots of Jewish life in Judea, Samaria, and Galilee stretch back over 3,000 years. The patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived and worshiped in these regions. Abraham purchased the Cave of Machpelah in Hebron (Genesis 23) — the first recorded Jewish land purchase — establishing a family burial site that remains sacred today. Jacob traveled through Bethel and Shechem (Nablus, in Samaria), building altars and naming the sites as places of divine encounter.

The tribal allotments described in the Book of Joshua divided the land among the twelve tribes of Israel — with Judah’s inheritance in Judea, Ephraim and Manasseh’s territories in Samaria, and Naphtali and Zebulun in Galilee. The First and Second Temples in Jerusalem, the ancient capital, became the heart of Jewish worship and national identity. Thus, these regions — Judea, Samaria, and Galilee — formed not only the physical homeland of the Jewish people but also the spiritual geography of their covenant with God.

2. Jewish Life Under Roman and Byzantine Rule

Even after the Roman conquests and the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Jews did not vanish from the land. Roman and later Byzantine records, along with Jewish sources such as the Mishnah and Talmud, document vibrant Jewish communities across the country.

After the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132–135 CE), Jews were expelled from Jerusalem, which the Romans renamed Aelia Capitolina. Yet they continued to live in towns and villages across Galilee, Judea, and Samaria. Archaeological findings from sites such as Sepphoris (Tzippori), Beit She’arim, and Tiberias show synagogues, ritual baths (mikva’ot), and Hebrew inscriptions, proving Jewish settlement.

In Galilee, Jewish learning flourished. The Sanhedrin — the supreme Jewish court — was reestablished there after the destruction of the Temple, first in Yavneh and later in Tiberias. The Jerusalem Talmud was compiled in these communities during the 4th–5th centuries CE.

In Judea and Samaria, Jews maintained agricultural life, cultivating olives, grapes, and wheat. Archaeological remains from Beth Guvrin, Hebron, and Shechem show continuity of Jewish habitation, even as Christians became the majority population under Byzantine rule.

3. Jewish Presence Under Early Islamic and Crusader Rule

When Arab-Muslim armies conquered the region in the 7th century, they encountered an existing Jewish population. The Caliph Omar reportedly allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem, from which they had been barred under Byzantine Christian rule. By the 10th century, geographers such as al-Muqaddasi noted Jewish communities in Jerusalem, Hebron, Ramleh, Caesarea, and Tiberias.

During the Crusader period (1099–1291), Jewish life suffered severe destruction, especially in Jerusalem and coastal cities. However, Jewish communities persisted in Galilee and reestablished themselves once Muslim control returned under the Ayyubid and Mamluk dynasties. Pilgrims like Benjamin of Tudela (12th century) recorded vibrant Jewish populations in Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias, and Safed, and noted that Jews continued to cultivate the land and maintain synagogues in these towns.

4. The Ottoman Period: Revival of Jewish Agricultural Settlements

When the Ottoman Empire conquered the land in 1517, Jewish communities continued to live throughout the territory. Census and tax records (defter) reveal Jewish populations in Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias, and smaller clusters in rural areas of Samaria and Judea.

Safed (Tzfat) became a major center of Jewish learning and mysticism in the 16th century, home to scholars like Rabbi Isaac Luria (the Ari) and Rabbi Yosef Karo, author of the Shulchan Aruch. Jewish farmers in the surrounding Galilee hills grew olives, grapes, and wheat.

Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, Jews expanded their presence beyond religious centers to farming communities. In Judea, Jewish families worked in vineyards near Hebron, cultivated land around Jerusalem, and traded with Arab neighbors.

In Samaria, Jewish pilgrims frequently visited the tombs of ancestors — such as Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem (Nablus) and Joshua’s Tomb in Timnat-Serah. Some even lived nearby, maintaining local synagogues and prayer sites.

5. The First Aliyah and the Modern Rebirth of Jewish Agriculture

By the mid-19th century, Jewish migration and land purchases accelerated under both Ottoman and European legal frameworks. Wealthy Jewish philanthropists — such as Moses Montefiore, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, and the Alliance Israélite Universelle — funded agricultural settlements to restore Jewish farming life.

In Galilee, Jewish pioneers founded Rosh Pinna (1878) and Yesud HaMa’ala (1882) on reclaimed swampy lands. These were followed by settlements such as Metula and Kfar Tavor, which revived ancient agricultural traditions.

In Judea, the area surrounding Jerusalem saw the founding of neighborhoods like Mishkenot Sha’ananim (1860), the first Jewish community outside the Old City walls. Jews also purchased land near Hebron and Beit Lehem (Bethlehem) for farming and religious study.

In Samaria, Jewish families from Nablus (ancient Shechem) and nearby villages maintained small communities, though limited by Ottoman restrictions on land sales. Nonetheless, Jewish travelers and emissaries documented continuous pilgrimage to holy sites and interaction with Samaritan and Arab populations.

These settlements were not colonial impositions but the organic renewal of an ancient nation returning to its homeland. Jews purchased land legally from Arab and Ottoman owners, often paying above-market prices.

6. Jewish Land Ownership and Community Life Before 1948

Ottoman land records (Tabu) and British Mandate archives show Jewish ownership of extensive farmland, orchards, and villages before Israel’s independence. By 1914, the Jewish population in the land had reached around 85,000, with thriving communities in Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias, Hebron, and new towns such as Petah Tikva, Rishon LeZion, and Zikhron Yaakov.

By 1939, on the eve of World War II, Jewish agricultural settlements covered large portions of Galilee and coastal Judea, and smaller enclaves existed in Samaria and the Jordan Valley. Jewish farmers exported oranges, olives, and wine to Europe, reviving the economy of the land.

Hebron remained home to a small but historic Jewish community until the tragic 1929 massacre, when Arab rioters killed 67 Jews and expelled the survivors. Yet even after this, Jews returned to Hebron periodically to maintain property and pray at the Cave of the Patriarchs, demonstrating an unbreakable bond.

7. Cultural and Religious Continuity

Throughout all these centuries, Jewish spiritual life anchored itself in the land. Jewish prayers daily proclaimed “Next year in Jerusalem,” and holiday pilgrimages to holy sites never ceased. Pilgrims came from Yemen, Morocco, Persia, and Europe to settle in the Four Holy Cities — Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed, and Tiberias — forming the backbone of Jewish continuity in the land.

Jewish travelers like Rabbi Ovadia of Bartenura (15th century), Menachem Mendel of Shklov (18th century), and Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai (19th century) recorded not only prayer and study but also farming, building, and trade as everyday parts of Jewish life in the Holy Land.

8. The Land Before 1948: A People Reawakening

When the British Mandate ended in 1948, the Jewish people did not “arrive” as foreigners. They emerged as heirs and caretakers of a land they had continuously inhabited, cultivated, and sanctified for millennia. The State of Israel did not arise from conquest but from historical continuity, legal acquisition, and ancestral right.

From Abraham’s cave in Hebron to the vineyards of Judea and the hills of Galilee, Jewish families lived, prayed, and worked the land without interruption. Even during times of exile, persecution, or minority status, they maintained property, synagogues, schools, and cemeteries — the enduring signs of a living nation.

9. Conclusion: Roots That Never Withered

Before 1948, Jewish life in Galilee, Judea, and Samaria was not a new phenomenon but the latest expression of an unbroken 3,000-year story. The Jewish people did not conquer their homeland — they restored it. Their presence, proven through archaeology, records, and faith, represents one of history’s most remarkable continuities: a people preserving its roots through every empire and exile, returning again and again to till the same soil their ancestors walked.