(), also known as Telz-Stone, is a strictly Orthodox town in the Jerusalem District of Israel. It is located in the approximate area of an ancient place mentioned in the Bible, from which it takes its name. It is bordered on one side by the Muslim Arab village of Abu Ghosh, and on the other side by the secular Jewish community of .Nefesh B'Nefesh Community Profiles: Telz-Stone/Kiryat Yearim. , more precisely: Telz-Stone removed from page. In it had a population of .
Names Kiryat Ye'arim For the official name, see Biblical connection section.
Telz-Stone Despite the official name of "Kiryat Ye'arim", the town is widely known as Telz-Stone, after the Telshe or Telz yeshiva, who had a branch there between 1977 and 1979,Rose, Binyamin. "The Prince of America's Torah Renaissance: An appreciation of Rav Mordechai Gifter, ztz"l, on his tenth yahrtzeit". Mishpacha, 29 December 2010, pp. 33–34. and American Greetings founder-chairman Irving I. Stone, who helped to finance the community's early development.
Geography is located approximately west of Jerusalem, just north of the Tel Aviv – Jerusalem highway. Neighboring to the northeast is the Arab town of Abu Ghosh. is between above sea level.
Biblical connection The modern town of (Town of Forests) is named for the homonymous ancient city (common English spelling: Kiriath-Jearim), mentioned in the Hebrew Bible as the site where the Ark of the Covenant has been kept for 20 years, according to the Book of Samuel. From here the Ark was taken to Jerusalem by King David ().
History
Six hundred dunams of modern-day were purchased before 1948 by Menashe Elissar, a businessman who was attracted to the site as the location of the biblical .
The modern community was established in 1973 by American ultra-Orthodox Jews. A group of students and teachers of the American Telshe Yeshiva (Yeshivat Telz in Hebrew) were active there in 1977–79.
Demography According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), at the end of 2019 had a population of 6,309 predominantly Jewish residents. Many of the residents are immigrants from North America, Europe and South Africa.
Institutions is home to three Orthodox post-high school yeshivas aimed at foreign students, particularly from the U.S.: Neveh Zion, Keser Dovid and Yishrei Lev.
It is also home to a Sephardic Haredi yeshiva - Be'er Yitzhak and another yeshiva: Me'orot Hatorah.
Voting Patterns In the 2022 election, 98 percent of voters in Kiryat Ye'arim voted for the parties of the right-wing coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu, while 1 percent voted for the parties of the center-left coalition led by Yair Lapid and 0.04 percent voted for the Arab parties. 88 percent of voters voted for the Haredi parties Shas or UTJ.
References