history
Every school child learns that "the river of Egypt" (Genesis 15:18), i.e., the eastern tributary of the Nile, is the border of Eretz Yisrael. (Even if someone claims that this is Wadi El Arish, it is still west of Gaza.) Whoever has learned a bit of history knows that the Patriarchs, the Hasmoneans and the sages of the Mishnah and Talmud were there, and that Rabbi Obadiah of Bartenura and Rabbi Meshulam of Volterra described Jewish communities there.
Moreover, Rabbi Yisrael Najara, while serving as Rabbi of Gaza, wrote the "Ka Ribon Olam" liturgical melody sung on Sabbaths. Only in the 1929 riots were the Jews removed from there. Since the Six Day War, Jews have begun to return to the area. Today, some 7,500 Jewish men, women and children are living there - and once more, Jews face the threat of expulsion - this time from a Jewish government in the Jewish National Homeland of Israel.
The earliest mention of Gaza in the Bible occurs in Gen. 10:19, where it is described as the southern terminus of the land of Canaan. The Philistines, a sea-faring people from Crete, had begun to settle in the area during the time of Abraham and, in later centuries, developed a powerful confederacy which was dominated by their five principal cities that included not only Gaza, but also Ashkelon, Gat, Ekron, and
Ashdod. These kingdoms lasted until the reign of David and Solomon.
The land, like the rest of the Land of Israel, was promised, by G-d to our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Abraham and Isaac lived in the Gaza Strip region. In Genesis Chapter 26 when Isaac, due to a famine in the land, goes to the city of Gerar, located in the Gaza Strip, where Avimelech, king of the Philistines resided, it is written: (26:2-4): The L-rd then appeared to him and said: "Do not go down to Egypt; settle in the land which I shall point out to you. Reside as a stranger in this land and I will be with you and bless you; for you and your descendants I will give all these regions, and so fulfill the oath which I made to your father Abraham. . . I will give your descendants this whole country.". Then in 26:6: "So Isaac settled in Gerar".
At the time of Joshua, Gaza with her towns and villages unto the River of Egypt and the Great Sea (located today around el Arish) (Josh. 15:47) was allotted to the tribe of Judah. It was the scene of Samson slaying the Philistines in the Temple of Dagon.
Solomon conquered Gaza, which by then contained a mixed gentile population, making it part of the southern limits of the Kingdom of Israel. Centuries later, it would trade in slaves with Edom, a practice which the Prophet Amos fiercely condemned.
In the Talmudic period, it was a pagan city, but the local Jews made it into a center of Talmud. Soon, other communities sprang up in the surrounding area until Talmud centers were established in towns and villages stretching from Rafah to Yavneh. In 508, a synagogue was built in Gaza attracting pilgrims from all over Israel and the Diaspora. Remnants of that synagogue can be still found today in Gaza City. According to the 10th century Karaite scholar Sahl ben Matzliah, Gaza was one the three cities in the Land of Israel that served as a place of pilgrimage (the others being Tiberias and Zoar).
Yonatan the Hashmonite (the brother of Judah the Maccabi), succeeded in conquering Gaza and settling there in 145 B.C.E. and his brother Shimon who developed the Jewish settlement there states (The Book of Maccabees: 1:15): "Not a strange land we have conquered, and not over the possessions of strangers we have ruled, but of the inheritance of our Fathers that was in the hands of the enemy for some time and was conquered unlawfully, and as for us, when we had the chance - we returned on to ourselves the inheritance of our Fathers."
Byzantine rule, which began shortly after the beginning of the Talmudic period, was very harsh toward the Jews, but the communities of Gaza and Rafah flourished. With the Arab invasion in the 7th century, the Jews of Gaza actually fought alongside the Byzantines. However, the Arabs took it in 634 and, as the first Arab settlers began to migrate to Palestine as a whole, so did they settle in Gaza. Gaza and Rafah continued to thrive under Arab rule although the surrounding communities began to decline. Gaza became a center of Masorah under a certain Rav Moshe. The Spanish linguist Dunash ben Labrat lived there for a time and during the 11th century, Rabbi Ephraim went from Gaza to the important rabbinical community of Fostat in Egypt.
The Crusader invasion in 1099, under their King Baldwin III, destroyed the community in Gaza (although visitors still described one there) and most of the
surrounding area. The mixed gentile populations were also driven out with the exception of the Christians. But those in Rafah managed to survive the onslaughts
and even served as a place of refuge for Jews fleeing Crusader atrocities elsewhere. But during the later Crusader period, even Rafah was abandoned.
The Mamelukes of Egypt conquered Israel in 1291, and in the 14th century, the Jewish community of Gaza revived. Arabs also came to settle in the town which
soon contained an Arab majority. This was a comparatively peaceful period. Gaza grew and achieved some level of prosperity. The cultivating of wine and
raising of cereals were occupations that the local Jews engaged in. The city also became one of the important centers for the Samaritan community along
with Jaffa, Tulkarm, and certainly Shechem. Over the years, they migrated to other parts of Israel and the Levant, dwindling the community.
In the 15th century, the Mameluke authorities in Palestine began to oppress the Jews with a heavy burden of taxes as well as other types of social restrictions. Sometimes, the Arabs joined in the oppression. Jerusalem was hit harder than any other city in the country. This began the custom of Gaza, and sometimes Hebron, serving as a place of refuge for Jews fleeing from the oppression of the authorities. What was Jerusalem's loss was Gaza's gain and by the 1480s, the community prospered under its Chief Rabbi Moses of Prague.
The Ottoman conquest in 1516 benefited the Jews of Gaza, and even Rafah briefly revived. For centuries, the rabbis of Jerusalem debated whether Gaza and the
surrounding area was part of the Land of Israel according to halacha. This same debate also centered around Jaffa, Haifa, and Acre. However, the rabbis must have ruled in Gaza's favor as the local farm owners were obligated to observe the Biblical laws of agriculture - laws which could only be applied within the borders of Israel.
