science

Moshava

Moshava is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Moshava rather than just read about it. In short: A moshava (Hebrew: מושבה, plural: moshavot מושבות, lit. colony) was a form of agricultural Jewish settlement in the region of Palestine (now Israel), established by the members of the Old Yishuv beginning in the late 1870s and during the first two waves of Jewish Zionist immigration – the First and Second Aliyah. History In a moshava, as opposed to later communal settlements like the kibbutz and the moshav (plural m…

Key takeaways

Moshava belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Moshava to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Moshava from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A moshava (Hebrew: מושבה, plural: moshavot מושבות, lit. colony) was a form of agricultural Jewish settlement in the region of Palestine (now Israel), established by the members of the Old Yishuv beginning in the late 1870s and during the first two waves of Jewish Zionist immigration – the First and Second Aliyah.

History In a moshava, as opposed to later communal settlements like the kibbutz and the moshav (plural moshavim), all the land and property are privately owned. The first moshavot were established by the members of the Jewish community already living in, and by pioneers of the arriving to, Ottoman Syria. The economy of the early moshavot was based on agriculture and resembled the grain-growing villages of eastern Europe in layout. Farms were established along both sides of a broad main street.

Petah Tikva, nicknamed the "Mother of Moshavot" (Em HaMoshavot), was founded in 1878 by members of the Old Yishuv, as well as Gai Oni, which later became Rosh Pinna with the arrival of the First Aliyah. The first four moshavot of the First Aliyah period were Rishon LeZion, Rosh Pinna, Zikhron Ya'akov and Yesud HaMa'ala. One of the driving forces behind these early settlements was the Hovevei Zion movement in Europe, whose branches operated as financially independent settlement societies. The moshava was governed by a charter outlining communal principles that established a covenant or bond between the residents.

Old Yishuv and First Aliyah moshavot

Chronological list by year of establishment.

Rishon LeZion (1882) Rosh Pinna (1882, taking over and renaming the colony of Gei Oni established in 1878 and down to three families by 1882) Zikhron Ya'akov (1882) Petah Tikva (1882; reestablished after first attempt in 1878) Mazkeret Batya (1883 established as "Ekron") Ness Ziona (1883; began as "Nahalat Reuven") Yesud HaMa'ala (1883) Gedera (1884) Bat Shlomo (1889) Meir Shfeya (1889) Rehovot (1890) Mishmar HaYarden (1890) Hadera (1891) Ein Zeitim (1892) Motza (1894) Hartuv (1895) Metula (1896) Be'er Tuvia (1896 reestablished and renamed by Hovevei Zion; first settled in 1887 as Castina for nearby Qastina) Bnei Yehuda (1898; not identical with the new Bnei Yehuda) Mahanayim (1898–1912) Sejera (1899–1902), now Moshav Ilaniya Mas'ha (1901), renamed Kfar Tavor in 1903 Yavne'el (1901) Menahemia (1901) Beit Gan (1903; next to Yavne'el) Atlit (1903) Giv'at Ada (1903) Kfar Saba (1904) Colonies were also established in the Hauran on lands bought by Baron Edmond de Rothschild in the area of the villages of Sahem al-Jawlan, Jileen and Nafa’a, by immigrants of the First Aliyah in a total of nine outposts, but the main five colonies, founded in 1895, had to be abandoned within a short while:

Tiferet Binyamin (1895) Zichron Menachem (1895) Nahalat Moshe (1895) Achvat Yisrael (1895) Beit Ikar (1895).

Second and Third Aliyah moshavot Kinneret (1908, Second Aliyah) Binyamina (1922, Third Aliyah and people from Zikhron Ya'akov )

See also Motza farm, est. 1854 by Old Yishuv members, later a village Mikveh Israel agricultural school, est. 1880 by the Alliance Israélite Universelle

References

Further reading Ran Aaronsohn, Rothschild and Early Zionist Colonization, Rowman & Littlefield and Magnes Press, Jerusalem, 2000

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Moshava

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Moshava claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Moshava before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Moshava ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Moshava

In research: Moshava appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Moshava in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Moshava is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Agriculture in Israel, Establishments in Ottoman Syria, Jewish settlement schemes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Moshava outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Moshava in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Moshava means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Moshava out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Moshava in simple terms?

Why does Moshava matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Moshava?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Moshava.