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Efrat (; ), or Efrata (אפרתה), is an Israeli settlement in Judea (southern West Bank), located south of Jerusalem, between the Biblical cities of Bethlehem and Hebron. Efrat was established in 1980, and contained 7,300 residents at the end of 2004 according to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics. Although it is geographically located within Gush Etzion (the Etzion Bloc of Jewish settlements), Efrat is a local council independent from the Gush Etzion Regional Council.
Efrat's population is mostly religious Zionist, and includes many Modern Orthodox Jews who have emigrated (have made aliyah) from the United States*. The Chief Rabbi of Efrat is Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, an alumnus of Yeshiva University and a disciple of the late Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. Rabbi Riskin was formerly the founding rabbi of the prestigious Lincoln Square Synagogue in Manhattan. In Israel, he has also founded a network of high schools and colleges that combine modern secular studies with intense study of Orthodox Judaism.
Archaeology
The area in which Efrat was constructed was already a settlement in the Bronze Age. Archeology by Rivka Gonen, summarized in 1979, revealed a cemetery consisting of a tumulus built over a platform structure and some 27 Bronze Age burial caves of the shaft-tomb type, many of which had been reused over long stetches of time. These tombs were reused in the Middle Bronze Age. Additionally, one of the three ancient aqueducts supplying Jerusalem runs beneath Efrat.
Naming Disagreement
Efrat is named after the biblical place Ephrath.
While according to the Israeli Ministry of the Interior, "Efrata" is the quotation from the Biblical verse, and therefore the town's name, the residents and municipality have maintained for many years that the reference isn't a name in and of itself, but rather means "towards Efrat". The reality that has developed is that all inter-city roadsigns, under purview of the National Government, read Efrata, while internal and private references speak of Efrat.
External Links
References
- Rivka Gonen, Excavations at Efrata: A Burial Ground from the Intermediate and Middle Bronze AgesIsrael Antiquities Authority Reports, 2001
"Efrat"