Introduction

Menahemia¹ is an agricultural village located in the Jordan Valley in north-eastern Israel, ten kilometers south of the village of Kineret. The moshava was founded under the name of Milhamia in late December 1901. Its land was purchased by the Jewish Colonization Association and was the first Jewish settlement in the southern Jordan Valley. Twenty years after its founding, the village was renamed Menahemia after the father, Menachem Samuel, of High Commissioner of Mandatory Palestine Herbert Samuel, First Viscount Samuel.

A pharmacy was established in Menahemia prior to the Great War in order to provide medicine to people who lived in the region. The area also had a quarry and a gypsum plant. Today Menahemia contains a museum of medical history established in the house of doctor Max Giliot; there is also a museum devoted to regional history. The village still contains old houses located on the main street – Hameyasdim (the establishers) street. Among these old buildings are the school and Tchizik house.

According to the two British Mandate Censuses taken in 1922 and in 1931, the population of Menahemia increased from 173 residents in 1922, of whom two-thirds were Jews, to 182 people, all of whom were Jews. See the census tab for details.