Kiryat Shmona
city in Israel
Kiryat Shmona (Hebrew: קריית שמונה, lit. 'City of the Eight') is a city in the Northern District of Israel on the western slopes of the Hula Valley near the Lebanese border.
In 2024, it had a population of 24,437. Located near the Israel–Lebanon border, Kiryat Shmona is Israel's northernmost city.
Etymology
Kiryat Shmona was named after eight Jewish militiamen, commanded by Joseph Trumpeldor, who had fallen in the 1920 Battle of Tel Hai during the Franco-Syrian War adjacent to the new town. It had originally been named Kiryat Yosef for Trumpeldor before the name was changed to Kiryat Shmona in June 1950.
History
Kiryat Shmona was established in 1949 on the site of the former depopulated Palestinian Arab village of Al-Khalisa, whose inhabitants fled after Safed was taken by the Haganah during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and an attempt by the village to come to an agreement with the Jewish authorities was rejected.
Initially, the area was used as a transit camp for immigrants who worked mainly in farming. The first residents were fourteen Yemenite Jews who arrived on July 18, 1949, and were followed by more Yemenis a month later. By July 1951, the population had grown to nearly 4,000. Relationships with nearby kibbutzim were often strained.
“Kiryat Shmona” enters the record as city in Israel. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kiryat, Shmona and city can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Kiryat Shmona” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Kiryat, Shmona and city provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q327413. VIAF identifies the subject as 145438032. The Library of Congress control number is n82069983. Authority coordinates are 33.208, 35.570. 5 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2024, 1920, 1950 and 1949.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Kiryat Shmona”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Kiryat Shmona primary sources, Kiryat Shmona archive and Kiryat research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kiryat Shmona”?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Kiryat Shmona” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.