Ramla was founded in 716 A.D. by Suliman Bin Abed Elmalek from
Beit Umaya and made it the lands capital. The city then began
its golden era that lasted nearly 400 years.
There were several reasons for this-

1. The administrative staff in charge

2. The geographical location- connecting Cairo, Damascus, Bagdad,
Kofa and Bazra that were the main trade centers at the time.


Ben-Tzion, in his article regarding Ramlas settlement history writes:
undoubted knowledge regarding the begining of the Jewish settlement
in Ramla initialy appears in documents of Cairo archives from the
10th and 11th century. Despite this there is a tendency to think
that the begining of the Jewish settlement in Ramla ocurred back
in the 8th century.

We have no reason to say that Jews did not lived in Israels first city
under Arab rule during its first century of existance because we have
knowledge of Jewish settlements in allmost every city in Israel large
and small.

Segal goes even further saying that Jewish settlement in Ramla began
together with the founding of the city. To prove this argument he
qoutes two important Historians. The first, Bladuri indicates that the
palace built by Suliman was named DAR-ATZ-TZABAIN meaning
'The painters house'. Yakuth, the second historian writes that when
Suliman built the city he set aside a special area for painters.

Considering the fact that painting was a Jewish trade in Israel and the
surrounding area long before Arab rule, we can assume that those painters
who arrived in Ramla when the city was founded, were Jews.

This researcher brings additional evidence from the Ktab-Alanuar
that speaks of a certain sect named Ramlis founded in the middle
of the 9th century by Malek-Ar-Ramli. This sect also appears in Hebrew
sources with knowledge covering nearly a full century. We are only
able to explain its growth on the basis of a large Jewish settlement.

The appearance of Malek in mid 9th century also shows proof of ancient
Jewish settlement in Ramla because it is clear the Jews arrived in Ramla
several years previously.

In the 10th and 11th centuries Ramla was a large, thriving city
and the Jewish settlement flourished as well. The Jews earned a living
through craft and trade and some reached great wealth and highly
positioned jobs in the rulers courts.

We have no accurate knowledge regarding the number of Jews in Ramla,
but from several documents it is possible to conclude that the number
was large.

Zeev Vilnai in his book on Ramla bases himself on archived documents
and writes:

In Ramla were synagogues for the Jewish residents. One was named the
ASH-SHAMAIN synagogue meaning "of Syrian and Israeli residents", and
were refered to in Arabic as ASH. This shows the existance of synagogues
for Jews from different neighboring countries.

The existance of synagogues is clearly obvious in one particular document
were the writer states:

"We went down to Ramla wishing to go to the synagogue and found several.
Aside synagogues, we also found in Ramlas Jewish community courtrooms
of justice. These courtrooms are authoritative and their ruling is
also acknowledged in Jerusalem."

Among the documents was found one interesting testimony from a court
session taking place in the year 1015 were the plaintiff MALKA DAUGHTER
OF RUHA requests her husband MAKTAR SON OF SLAMA AD DAMASCI
to return to her as customary or to give her a divorce and pay her
alamony as required.

In the years 1015-1020 the great Rabbinical college established its
possition. Later after moving to Jerusalem A high rabbinical authority
would often visit Ramla to retain connections between the Jewish
community and the authorities. He was in charge of Jewish law, judged
issues regarding property and was in charge of the meat market since
all meat preparation had to adhere to strict kosher requirements.

In the years 1024-1029 the city suffered pogroms by enemies comming
from outside. In this moment of despair the Jews of the city turned
to their brothers in Egypt "Have mercy O' our Israeli brothers, for
we have been afflicted." After these pogroms calmed down,
the city underwent another new disaster. In the year 1033 a sudden
earthquake destroyed the city. A shocking and astonishing description
of the destruction is presented by the great rabbinical authority
BEN-YEHUDA:

"All exited their homes to the streets for they saw the houses and walls
collapsing, beams being detached, reinforced buildings falling and newly
constructed housing destroyed. Many were killed in the ruins for they
had no escape. All fled their homes leaving all behind running for their life!"

The city recovered and the community began rebuilding itself.
We have knowledge of new courthouses in 1065 and Jewish persona
in high employment positions.

Nature was not mercifull with the city and in 1067 another even more
severe earthquake hits again, this time destroying the city completely
and killing 25,000 people. Not yet recovering from this blow and along
came bandits HESLEG and KIM who robbed the city and what was keft.

A document from 1096 signed by several rabbis leaves some evidence
of the Jewish settlement still existing, but in 1099 when the crusaders
entered the city most of the residents fled to Ashkelon. It is assumable
that the Jewish residents did the same.

From this point on until the 16th century was a bad time for Ramla in
general and for the Jewish settlement in particular. This was a long
period of conquering by different nations, unstable tyrant and
oppressing rule. The Jewish settlement if exists at all is poor and
temporary. The crusaders took advantage of Ramlas geographical and
strategical location being a city in the center of the country, and
transformed it to a fortified crusader base. This did not last for
long. The importance of the city to both crusaders and muslums led
to harsh battles between the two causing the city to alternate rule.

Since the time of the crusaders, the only knowledge we have regarding
the Jewish settlement in Ramla are from the recordings of BINYAMIN
METUDELA who notes that while passing through Ramla in 1170, he found
about 300 Jews. According to BENTZION DI-NUR, Metudela if refering to
a trading permit that was given to Mercei traders enabling them to
do business in Ramla. Based on several pieces of evidence that emphasize
the great role Mercei traders played in general and particularly in the
east, DI-NUR suggests that many of these traders who reached Ramla were
Jews who renewed the Jewish settlement. DI-NUR further states that
this new community was the base core for Ramla refugees and others
that increased the citys Jewish settelement. According to JOSHUA PRAVER
the community mentioned by METUDELA was founded only by returning refugees.

In my opinion METUDELAs recordings are somewhat questionable.
Several publications wrote not "about 300 Jews", but "about 3 Jews".
In any case, the different arguments on this topic do not contain enough
information to show of a significant turn in the rehabilitation of the
Jewish settlement in that time. Only in the year 1260 does Ramla finaly
fall into the hands of Mamlukian Muslums who rule until the begining of
the 16th century.

According to an article by M. ISH-SHALOM on the history of Ramlas Jewish
settlement, there is an informa refering to the existance of a Jewish
settlement in the time of the Mamlukians. This piece of information
is also brought forth in the book "Kaftor VaPerach" by R. ASTORI HA-FARCHI
who claims that since the year 1322 the Jews would celebrate two days
of holiday feast as traditionaly done by Jews in the diaspora on holidays
of sabatical character. YITZCHAK BEN-TZVI in his article on the Jewish
settlement in Ramla, holds the opinion that from the year 1322 no
documented information can be recalled on this topic.

The Utmanian rule that showed a positive attitude towards the Jews,
aroused hope that the joining of Israel with Turkey will bring improvement
to the Jews situation and instead of low level citizenship as in the time
of the Mamlukians, their status would improve and equal those Jews in
other Utmanian regions. Despite our expectations for renewing the Jewish
settlement in Ramla, we hold no knowledge that it actualy happened.
Furthermore, it is assumable that the settlement did not renew due
to the fact that Spanish imigrants settled in the Galilee and especialy
in Zephath and Tiberias. Another factor that was likely to prevent
settlement was an earthquake that hit the city in 1546 and completely
destroyed it. Only in the year 1581 do we find evidence of a Jewish
settlement in Ramla through a testimony by the german tourist Solomon
Shwieger who visited the city. He speaks of a city named "Rama" that
the natives call "Ramla", is settled with Arabs, Turks, Jews and Christians.

Another informa from the year 1625 that gives us a clue on this topic
can be found in the book "The Destruction of Jerusalem" were we are told
of Rabbi HAIM DI-SHIRIZ who lived in Ramla and mediated between Jews in
Jerusalem and the Utmanian rule in Damascus.

According to M.ISH-SHALOM, rabbi DI-SHIRIZ did not serve as leader of the
Jewish community in the city but only lived there temporarily.
On the other hand we know that at the time many Jews fled from Jerusalem
to escape tyrant rule and we can assume that rabbi Di-Shiriz along with
many others arrived in Ramla and settled there.

The escape from Jerusalem came in waves.
Documentation from 1662 by SHMUEL GARMIZAN notes that Jerusalem Jews fled
from the oppressors rage, taxes and other penalties, set their homes in
Ramla. Among those were rabbi MOSHE BEN-CHAVIV who later was chief rabbi
of Jerusalem and two of the greatest rabbinical authorities at the time:
rabbi YEHUDA JARFI, and - rabbi V.HANANYA who were also among the leaders
of Ramlas Jewish community.

From the 18th century till mid 19th century there is very little knowledge
about the Jewish settlement in Ramla. It as assumable that in this time
it was poor and temporary due to several reasons:

1. The local rule at the current time takes control over all authority,
detaches itself from the main government and concetrates its interests
in tax collection alone.

2. Jewish imigrants from central Europe, disciples of the famous VILNA
GAON and of the BAAL-SHEM-TOV, prefered settling in sacred cities such
as Jerusalem and Tzfat there lived thousands of Jews while in the non
sacred cities such as Jaffa, Schem, Ako and Gazza there the Jewish
settlement was very small.

The Jewish settlement in Ramla actualy renewed in 1886 as told by
YODILOVITZ in his book."...And the Jews moved to settle in Ramla that
had previously no Jewish settlers. Among them blacksmiths and woodcrafters
who studied in Jerusalem in the school of NISIM BACHAR who encouraged them
to settle in Ramla were they properly earned their living."

The CHOVEVEI TZION commitee supported Ramlas SHOCHET
( A learned person knowledgable of the different aspects of
preparing meat according to Jewish law ) who served other settlements
as well. A hotel was also constructed in Ramla for Jewish passers to
get some rest. This hotel lasted till the great pogroms. Efraim Dynard
attempted to set up a Jewish settlement in Ramla and for this purpose he
purchased a large area of land and a park named "Park Efraim" after him.
Also worthy of mentioning is the fact that in 1906 the ZION WORKERS
commitee got together to officaly accept the platform of the Zion Workers
movement in Israel.

A testimony regarding development of the settlement in Ramla from early
1917 states:

"The current Jewish settlement in Ramla is 30 years old.
The first imigrants were Europian Jews and traders from Damascus.
On sabath and festivals they would return to their homes in Jaffa.
When neighboring Jewish settlements were built, RISHON LE-TZION, EKRON
and RECHOVOT many families of Europian origin settled in along with
other craftsmen who were unable to find housing in the newer areas.
The community became more organized some time later.

A company named "Le-maan Tzion" ( Hebrew meaning for the sake of Zion )
took care of thier communal needs and constructed 3 buildings for this
purpose. At that time the Jewish population increased to 30 families
counting about 130-150 people all together. Most of them were agricultural
workers although there were among them grocers, merchants and craftsmen.
Over the settlement decreased in size, workers went out to other locations
while no new settlers came to fill in their place.

One of these men built a furnace for burning plaster that was transported
from here to Jaffa and other settlements. Five years ago a new resident
purcahsed an acre of land and built a home on it hoping to increase the
initial Jewish population.

During the years of world war I several families left the city.
When a proper census was organized a while later there were only 5
families left counting 21 people-half female."

In a census done by the British some time later an image of a very meager
settlement comes to view.

In 1922, the whole population counted 35 Jewish people and in 1931 only 5
due to the great pogroms that terminated the Jewish settlement causing
only a few individuals to agree on returning to their homes.

It was only on july 12, 1948 with the liberation of the city through
Operation Danny that the Jewish settlement in Ramla was renewed.
Ramla became a Hebrew city, A city for imigrants that evolved and
developed and today counts 65,000 people.