Lod
Bible Dictionary and Concordance:
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Lydda, Lod
A town not mentioned in the Bible until the return from the Babylonian Exile (Ezra 2:33), though its inclusion in a list of the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmosis III testifies to its antiquity. It is situated between Jerusalem and Joppa, about 12 miles (19 km) from the latter. Its main importance lies in its role in Roman and Byzantine times. According to the NT the apostle Peter went to Lydda to visit believers who lived there (Acts 9:32). There he healed Aenas who had been paralyzed for eight years. In the time of Constantine, St. George, patron saint of England, was martyred at Lydda, and his shrine was venerated from the 4th century.
Concordance
I Chr 8:12. Ezra 2:33. Neh 7:37; 11:35. Acts 9:32, 35, 38
Lod (lōd), city (1994 pop. 51,200), central Israel. It is also known as Lydda. Its manufactures include paper products, chemicals, oil products, electronic equipment, processed food, and cigarettes. Nearby is Ben-Gurion airport, the nation's chief international airport and the center of its large aircraft industry. The city is a railroad and road junction. Lod was probably of Hebrew foundation and is frequently mentioned in the Bible. It was destroyed (A.D. 66-70) by the Romans in the Jewish-Roman war and, after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (A.D. 70), became the temporary seat of many famous Jewish teachers. Hadrian rebuilt the city and named it Diospolis. It is the traditional home and place of burial of St. George (4th cent.?), England's patron saint, and has a church in his honor. In the 5th cent. it was the seat of a bishop; a synod of bishops met there in 415. Lod was occupied by the Crusaders in 1099, destroyed by Saladin in 1191, and rebuilt by King Richard I (Richard Coeur de Lion) of England. After the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 most Arabs were expelled from the city, which was then settled by Jewish immigrants.
Town in Israel (in Hebrew, Lod; in Arabic, al-Lidd).
An ancient biblical town, Lydda was known through the nineteenth century as an intermediate center for caravans and for its magnificent Byzantine basilica over the tomb of St. George. Under Ottoman rule, it was an Arab town that was part of the Jerusalem sanjak (district) and an important center for soap and olive oil manufacture. During the 1930s, it became one of the most important railroad junctions in the Middle East, with lines connecting Jaffa, Jerusalem, and Cairo. Lydda sustained human and material losses in the 1927 earthquake. During the bloody events of 1936 to 1939, the Jews left the town and it became a base of operations for Palestinian Arabs who were attacking Jewish towns. Most of the town's more than ten thousand Palestinian Arabs escaped or were forcibly evacuated by the Israel Defense Force during the 1948 Arab - Israel War.
Lydda is located northeast of Ramla, south of Ben Gurion Airport (originally opened in 1937). It is also the center of Israel's aircraft industry. Both the airport and the industry constitute important sources of income for the town's population. At the end of 2002 the population numbered 66,500, including more than 4,000 Muslim and Christian Palestinian citizens.
— ELIZABETH THOMPSON
UPDATED BY YEHUDA GRADUS
Dialing Code:
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The telephone dialing code for: Lod, Israel
The country code is: 972
The city code is: 8
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For other uses, see Lod (disambiguation).
| Lod | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrew transcription(s) | |||
| • Hebrew | לֹד, לוֹד | ||
| • ISO 259 | Lodd | ||
| Arabic transcription(s) | |||
| • Arabic | الْلُدّ al-Ludd | ||
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 Lod
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| Coordinates: 31°56′54.59″N 34°53′20.4″E / 31.9484972°N 34.889°ECoordinates: 31°56′54.59″N 34°53′20.4″E / 31.9484972°N 34.889°E | |||
| District | Center | ||
| Government | |||
| • Type | City | ||
| • Mayor | Ilan Harari | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 12,226 dunams (12.226 km2 or 4.720 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2010)[1] | |||
| • Total | 70,000 | ||
Lod (Hebrew: לוֹד; Arabic: الْلُدّ, al-Ludd; Greco-Latin Lydda, Diospolis) is a city 15 kilometers (9.3 mi) southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2011, it had a population of 74,000.
The name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod.[2] When al-Ludd, as it was known by its Arab inhabitants was captured by Israel, the Arab inhabitants fled or were expelled[3] and the city was settled by Jewish immigrants, most of them refugees from Arab countries.[4][5] Of the former Arab population, only 1,056 inhabitants remained.[4] It is today known as Lod, its biblical name.[6]
Israel's main international airport, Ben Gurion International Airport (previously known as Lydda Airport, RAF Lydda, and Lod Airport) is located on the outskirts of the city.
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Etymology
The Hebrew name Lod appears in the bible as a town of Benjamin, founded by Shamed or Shamer (1 Chronicles 8:12; Ezra 2:33; Nehemiah 7:37; 11:35). In the New Testament it appears as its Greek form, Lydda.[7][8] The city also finds reference in an Islamic Hadith, as the location of the battlefield where 'Dajjal' (the Anti-Christ) will be slayed before the Day of Judgment.[9][10]
History
Canaanite period
Pottery finds have dated the city's initial settlement to 5600–5250 BC.[11] The earliest written record is in a list of Canaanite towns drawn up by the Egyptian pharaoh Thutmose III at Karnak in 1465 BC.[12]
Jewish period
From the 5th century BC until the Roman conquest in 70 AD, the city was a Jewish city, and a well-known centre of Jewish scholars and merchants.[13] According to Martin Gilbert, during the Hasmonean period, Jonathan Maccabee and his brother Simon Maccabaeus enlarged the area under Jewish control, which included conquering the city.[14]
The city is mentioned several times in the Bible: in Ezra 2:33, it is mentioned as one of the cities whose inhabitants returned after the Babylonian captivity, and in the New Testament, it is the site of Peter's healing of a paralytic man in Acts 9:32-38.[15]
In 43 AD, Cassius, the Roman governor of Syria, sold the inhabitants of Lod into slavery. During the First Jewish–Roman War, the Roman proconsul of Syria, Cestius Gallus, razed the town on his way to Jerusalem in 66 AD. It was occupied by Emperor Vespasian in 68 AD.[16]
During the Kitos War, the Roman army laid siege to Lod, then called Lydda, where the rebel Jews had gathered under the leadership of Julian and Pappus. The distress became so great that the patriarch Rabban Gamaliel II, who was shut up there and died soon afterwards, permitted fasting even on Ḥanukkah. Other rabbis condemned this measure.[17] Lydda was next taken and many of the Jews were executed; the "slain of Lydda" are often mentioned in words of reverential praise in the Talmud.[18]
Roman period
In 200 AD, emperor Septimius Severus elevated the town to the status of a city, calling it Colonia Lucia Septimia Severa Diospolis.[19] The name Diospolis ("city of gods") may have been bestowed earlier, possibly by Hadrian.[20] At that point, most of its inhabitants were Christian. In 415, the Council of Diospolis was held here to try Pelagius; he was acquitted. In the sixth century the city was renamed Georgiopolis[21] after St. George, a soldier in the guard of the emperor Diocletian, who was born there between 256 and 285 AD.[22] Church of St. George is named for him.[12]
Arab period
After the Muslim conquest of Palestine by Amr ibn al-'As in 636 AD,[23] Lod which was referred to as "al-Ludd" in Arabic served as the capital of Jund Filastin ("Military District of Palestine") before the seat of power was moved to nearby Ramla during the Umayyad Caliphate of Suleiman ibn Abd al-Malik in 715-716. Afterward, the population of al-Ludd was relocated to the newly-found city of Ramla.[24] With the relocation of its inhabitants and the construction of the White Mosque in Ramla, al-Ludd lost its importance and fell into decay.[25]
The city was visited by the local Arab geographer al-Muqaddasi in 985, during the Abbasid Caliphate and was noted for its Great Mosque which served the residents of al-Ludd, Ramla and the nearby villages. He also wrote of the city's "wonderful church (of St. George) at the gate of which Christ will slay the Antichrist."[26]
Crusader and Ayyubid period
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The Crusaders occupied the city in 1099 and named it St. Jorge de Lidde.[13] It was briefly conquered by Saladin, but retaken by the Crusaders in 1191. For the English Crusaders, it was a place of great significance as the birthplace of Saint George. The Crusaders made it the seat of a Latin rite diocese,[27] and it remains a titular see.[28] According to the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela, there was one Jewish family living there in 1170.[29]
In 1226 Syrian geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi visited al-Ludd and stated it was part of the Jerusalem District during Ayyubid rule.[30]
Ottoman era
The missionary Dr. William M. Thomson visited Lydda in the mid 19th century, describing it as a "flourishing village of some 2,000 inhabitants, embosomed in noble orchards of olive, fig, pomegranate, mulberry, sycamore, and other trees, surrounded every way by a very fertile neighborhood. The inhabitants are evidently industrious and thriving, and the whole country between this and Ramleh is fast being filled up with their flourishing orchards. Rarely have I beheld a rural scene more delightful than this presented in early harvest ... It must be seen, heard, and enjoyed to be appreciated."[31]
In 1870, under the rule of the Ottoman empire, the Church of Saint George was built. In 1892 the first railway station in the entire region was established in the city.[32] In the second half of the 19th century, Jewish merchants migrated to the city but left after the 1921 Jaffa riots.[32]
British Mandate era
From 1918, Lydda was under the administration of the British Mandate in Palestine, as per a League of Nations decree that followed World War I. During World War II, the British set up supply posts in and around Lydda and its railway station, also building an airport that was renamed Ben Gurion Airport after the establishment of Israel.[32]
Until 1948, Lydda was an Arab town with a population of around 20,000—18,500 Muslims and 1,500 Christians.[33][34] In 1947, the United Nations proposed dividing Palestine into two states, one Jewish state, one Arab; Lydda was to form part of the proposed Arab state.[35] Several Arab states attacked, and in the ensuing war Israel captured Arab towns outside the area the UN had allotted it, including Lydda.
The Israel Defence Forces entered Lydda on July 11, 1948. The following day, under the impression that it was under attack,[36] the 3rd Battalion was ordered to shoot anyone "seen on the streets." According to Israel, 250 Arabs (men, women, and children) were killed. Other estimates are higher: Arab historian Aref al Aref estimated 400, and Nimr al Khatib 1700.[37][38]
State of Israel
During 1948, the population rose to 50,000 people as Arab refugees fleeing other areas made their way there.[32] All but 700[39] to 1,056[4] were expelled by order of the Israeli high command, and forced to walk 17 kilometers to Arab Legion lines on one of the hottest days of the year. Many died from exhaustion and dehydration; estimates vary from a handful to 355.[40][41] The town was subsequently sacked by the Israeli army. The few hundred Arabs who remained in the city were not permitted to live in their own homes,.[42] They were soon outnumbered by the influx of Jewish immigrants who moved into the town from August 1948 onwards, most from Arab countries.[4] as a result of which Lydda became a predominantly Jewish town.[34][43]
The new Jewish immigrants came in waves, first from Morocco and Tunisia, and later from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union.[1]. The city continues to influence the work of Israeli artists and thinkers, such as Dor Guez's 2009 exhibit Georgeopolis at the Petach Tikva art museum.
Within the city of Lod, a three meter-high wall has been erected to separate Jewish districts from Arab ones. Arab suburbs have been restricted from growing, while the Israeli government has encouraged building in Jewish areas. Some municipal services, such as street lighting and rubbish collection, are only provided to Jewish areas.[44][45]
Demographics
According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the population of Lod in 2010 was 69.5 thousand people.[46] Of these about 25 percent are Arabs, the rest Jewish Israelis. Thirty-three percent of the population are "olim", or new Jewish immigrants to Israel. See Population groups in Israel.
An Israeli government report in 2003 singled out Lod as a focal point for social and demographic problems.[47] The report noted the high rate of drug use and crime, the large number of poor and social service cases (about 10 percent of the population), and, in particular, the cramped and substandard living conditions of Lod's Arab population. [47]
Education
According to CBS, there are 38 schools and 13,188 pupils in the city. They are spread out as 26 elementary schools and 8,325 elementary school pupils, and 13 high schools and 4,863 high school pupils. 52.5% of 12th grade pupils were entitled to a matriculation certificate in 2001.
Economy
The airport and related industries are a major source of employment for the residents of Lod. The Jewish Agency Absorption Centre, the main facility for handling olim arriving in Israel, is also located in Lod. According to CBS figures for 2000, there were 23,032 salaried workers and 1,405 self-employed. The mean monthly wage for a salaried worker was NIS 4,754, a real change of 2.9% over the course of 2000. Salaried men had a mean monthly wage of NIS 5,821 (a real change of 1.4%) versus NIS 3,547 for women (a real change of 4.6%). The mean income for the self-employed was NIS 4,991. There were 1,275 people receiving unemployment benefits and 7,145 receiving an income supplement.
Urban renewal
Plagued by a poor image for decades, projects are under way to improve services in Lod. New upscale neighborhoods are expanding the city to the east, among them Ganei Ya'ar and Ahisemah.[48]
Archaeology
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A well-preserved mosaic floor dating to the Roman period was excavated in 1996 as part of a salvage dig conducted on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Municipality of Lod, prior to widening HeHalutz Street. The mosaic was covered over with soil at the conclusion of the excavation for lack of funds to conserve and develop the site.[49] The mosaic is now part of the Lod Mosaic Archaeological Center.
Sports
The city's major soccer club, Hapoel Bnei Lod, plays in Liga Leumit (the second division). Its home base is Lod Municipal Stadium. The club was formed by a merger of Bnei Lod and Rakevet Lod in the 1980s. Two other clubs in the city play in the regional leagues: Hapoel MS Ortodoxim Lod in Liga Bet and Maccabi Lod in Liga Gimel.
Hapoel Lod played in the top division during the 1960s and 1980s, and won the State Cup in 1984. The club folded in 2002. A new club, Hapoel Maxim Lod (named after former mayor Maxim Levy) was established soon after, but folded in 2007.
Notable residents
- DAM, a hip-hop group
- George Habash (1926–2008), founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
- Tamer Nafar, rapper
- Salim Tuama, footballer
- Rabbi Akiva, Talmudic Sage
- Eliezer ben Hurcanus, Talmudic Sage
- Joshua ben Hananiah, Talmudic Sage
- Rabban Gamliel, Talmudic Sage
- Eleazar bar Zadok, Talmudic Sage
- Rav Zadok, Talmudic Sage
- Rabbi Tarfon, Talmudic Sage
- Jose the Galilean, Talmudic Sage
- Rav Bisa, Talmudic Sage
- Rav Hama, Talmudic Sage from the period after Bar-Kochba revolt.
- Bar Kappara, Talmudic Sage from the period after Bar-Kochba revolt.
- Joshua ben Levi, Talmudic Sage
- Rabbi Simeon Ludia, Talmudic Sage
- Rav Huna, Talmudic Sage
Twin towns-sister cities
Lod is twinned with:
See also
- Exodus from Lydda
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestinian exodus
- Operation Danny
- 1948 Arab–Israeli war
- 1948 Palestinian exodus
References
- ^ "Table 3 - Population of Localities Numbering Above 2,000 Residents and Other Rural Population". Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. 2010-06-30. http://www.cbs.gov.il/population/new_2010/table3.pdf. Retrieved 2010-11-26.
- ^ The Madaba Mosaic Map, Jerusalem 1954, 61-62
- ^ Shapira, Anita, “Politics and Collective Memory: the Debate Over the 'New Historians' in Israel” in History and Memory, 7 (1) (Spring 1995), pp. 9ff, 12–13, 16–17.
- ^ a b c d Encyclopedia of Islam, By Sir H. A. R. Gibb, 1983 edition, ISBN 978-90-04-07164-3, Page 897
- ^ Morris, Benny. (2004) The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press, pp. 414-461.
- ^ Yacobi, Haim. The Jewish-Arab City, Taylor & Francis, 2009, p. 29: "The occupation of Lydda by Israel in the 1948 war did not allow the realization of Pocheck's garden city vision. Different geopolitics and ideologies began to shape Lydda's urban landscape ... [and] its name was changed from Lydda to Lod, which was the region's biblical name."; also see Pearlman, Moshe and Yannai, Yacov. Historical sites in Israel. Vanguard Press, 1964, p. 160. For the Hebrew name being used by inhabitants before 1948, see A cyclopædia of Biblical literature: Volume 2, by John Kitto, William Lindsay Alexander. p. 842 ("... the old Hebrew name, Lod, which had probably been always used by the inhabitants, appears again in history."); And Lod (Lydda), Israel: from its origins through the Byzantine period, 5600 B.C.E.-640 C.E., by Joshua J. Schwartz, 1991, p. 15 ("the pronunciation Lud began to appear along with the form Lod")
- ^ Bible Dictionary, "Lydda".
- ^ International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, "Lod; Lydda"
- ^ http://www.missionislam.com/nwo/signsdajjal.htm
- ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masih_ad-Dajjal
- ^ Schwartz, Joshua J. Lod (Lydda), Israel: from its origins through the Byzantine period, 5600 B.C.-640 A.D.. Tempus Reparatum, 1991, p. 39.
- ^ a b "Excursions in Terra Santa". Franciscan Cyberspot. http://198.62.75.1/www1/ofm/sbf/escurs/TS/02_TSen.html. Retrieved 2007-02-22.
- ^ a b "Lod," Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009.
- ^ Gilbert, Martin. Dearest Auntie Flori: The Story of the Jewish People. Harper Collins 2002, p. 82; also see Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 14:208
- ^ "Lod," Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009. "And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda," Acts 9:32-38.
- '^ Michael Avi-Yonah, Encyclopaedia Judaica, s.v. "Lydda"
- ^ Ta'anit ii. 10; Yer. Ta'anit ii. 66a; Yer. Meg. i. 70d; R. H. 18b
- ^ Pes. 50a; B. B. 10b; Eccl. R. ix. 10
- ^ Cecil Roth, Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1972, p. 619.
- ^ E. Mary Smallwood, The Jews under Roman rule: from Pompey to Diocletian : a study in political relations, p. 491. BRILL, 2001. ISBN 978-0-391-04155-4
- ^ Yoram Tsafrir, Leah Di Segni, Judith Green, Tabula Imperii Romani Iudaea-Palestina: Eretz Israel in the Hellenistic , Roman and Byzantine Periods; Maps and Gazetteer, p. 171. Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1994. ISBN 978-965-208-107-0
- ^ Frenkel, Sheera and Low, Valentine. "Why Lod, the other land of St George, isn't for the faint-hearted", The Times, April 23, 2009.
- ^ le Strange, p.28.
- ^ le Strange, p.303.
- ^ le Strange, p.308.
- ^ le Strange, p.493.
- ^
"Lydda". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. - ^ Lydda Catholic-hierarchy.org
- ^ Pringle, 1993, p. 11.
- ^ le Strange, p.494.
- ^ Thomson, W.M. (1861). The Land and the Book. T Nelson and Sons, p. 525.
- ^ a b c d Shahin, 2005, p. 260.
- ^ "Lod," January 2, 1949, IS archive Gimel/5/297 in Yacobi, Haim. The Jewish-Arab City, Taylor & Francis, 2009, p. 31.
- ^ a b Monterescu and Rabinowitz, 2007, pp. 16-17.
- ^ Sa'di and Abu-Lughod, 2007, pp. 91-92.
- ^ Tal, David. War in Palestine, 1948: Strategy and Diplomacy. Routledge, 2004, p. 311.
- ^ Sefer Hapalmah ii (The Book of the Palmah), p.565; and KMA-PA (Kibbutz Meuhad Archives - Palmah Archive). Quoted in Morris, 1987.
- ^ Morris, 1987, p. 205. Morris writes: "[...] dozens of unarmed detainees in the mosque and church in the centre of the town were shot and killed."
- ^ The figure comes from Bechor Sheetrit, the Israeli Minister for Minority Affairs at the time, cited in Yacobi, Haim. The Jewish-Arab City, Taylor & Francis, 2009, p. 32.
- ^ Spiro Munayyer, The Fall of Lydda, Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Summer, 1998), pp. 80-98. See also Yitzhak Rabin's diaries, quoted here.
- ^ Holmes et al., 2001, p. 64.
- ^ Hoffman, Carl (16 December 2008). "Lod: In need of a major makeover". © 2008-2009 The Jerusalem Post. http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728141422&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull. Retrieved 2009-06-02.
- ^ Yacobi, Haim. The Jewish-Arab City, Taylor & Francis, 2009, p. 29.
- ^ Pulled Apart. The Economist. 2010-10-14.
- ^ Walls of Separation in the Mixed Cities: Pardes Snir, Lod Shatil. p.5.
- ^ Israel Central Bureau of Statistics Annual Report 2010
- ^ a b The City of Lod:Information and Statistics (Knesset Research Bureau 2003), available at www.knesset.gov.il/mmm/data/docs/m00975.doc
- ^ Ganei Ya'ar in Lod The Jerusalem Post, 7 February 2008
- ^ Lod mosaic
- ^ "Piatra Neamţ - Twin Towns". © 2007-2008 Piatra-Neamt.net. http://www.piatra-neamt.net/en/twin_towns.php. Retrieved 2009-09-27.
Bibliography
- le Strange, Guy (1890), Palestine Under the Moslems: A Description of Syria and the Holy Land from A.D. 650 to 1500, Committee of the Palestine Exploration Fund, http://www.archive.org/details/palestineundermo00lestuoft
External links
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- City council (Hebrew)
- al-Lydd Palestine Remembered
- Lydda (Lod), Jewish Agency for Israel
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