Ben Shemen is a moshav

Moshav

Moshav is a type of Israeli town or settlement, in particular a type of cooperative agricultural community of individual farms pioneered by the Labour Zionists during the second aliyah...

 in central Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. Located around four kilometres east of Lod

Lod

Lod is a city located on the Sharon Plain southeast of Tel Aviv in the Center District of Israel. At the end of 2010, it had a population of 70,000, roughly 75 percent Jewish and 25 percent Arab.The name is derived from the Biblical city of Lod...

, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hevel Modi'in Regional Council

Hevel Modi'in Regional Council

Hevel Modi'in Regional Council is a regional council in central Israel. It was founded in 1950 and covers an area from Petah Tikva to Modi'in.The council borders*Drom HaSharon Regional Council, El'ad and Rosh HaAyin in the north...

. In 2006 it had a population of 627.

The moshav was originally founded in 1905, and was one of the first villages established on Jewish National Fund

Jewish National Fund

The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organisation...

 land. In 1947 he had a population of 75. Its name taken from Isaiah

Book of Isaiah

The Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...

 5:1;

Let me sing of my well-beloved, a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My well-beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill.

and also reflects the J.N.F.'s intention to plant olive trees in this area.

In 1923 it was split in two, with a group of trial farms eventually becoming a separate moshav, Kerem Ben Shemen

Kerem Ben Shemen

Kerem Ben Shemen , also known as Ben Shemen-Shikhun is a moshav in central Israel. Located near Lod, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hevel Modi'in Regional Council. In 2006 it had a population of 148....

. The moshav was refounded in 1952 by immigrants

Aliyah

Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to the Land of Israel . It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology. The opposite action, emigration from Israel, is referred to as yerida . The return to the Holy Land has been a Jewish aspiration since the Babylonian exile...

 from Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

. Some houses in the moshav were built by Bezalel Academy of Art and Design

Bezalel Academy of Art and Design

Bezalel Academy of Art and Design is Israel's national school of art, founded in 1906 by Boris Schatz. It is named for the Biblical figure Bezalel, son of Uri , who was appointed by Moses to oversee the design and construction of the Tabernacle ....

 founder Boris Schatz

Boris Schatz

Boris Schatz was a Lithuanian Jewish artist and sculptor who founded the Bezalel School in Jerusalem.-Biography:Boris Schatz was born in Varniai, Kaunas district, Lithuania, under the rule of the Russian Empire in 1867. His father, a teacher in a cheder , sent him to study in a yeshiva in...

.

During World War II, Ben Shemen was the site of a brutal British search for weapons. Similar searches were a common British response to often violent Yishuv opposition to the 1939 Whitepaper.

The village experienced extensive damage during the early days of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war

1948 Arab-Israeli War

The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known to Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation The war commenced after the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the creation of an independent Israel at midnight on 14 May 1948 when, following a period of civil war, Arab armies invaded...

 and had to be reconstructed.

The first Jewish National Fund

Jewish National Fund

The Jewish National Fund was founded in 1901 to buy and develop land in Ottoman Palestine for Jewish settlement. The JNF is a quasi-governmental, non-profit organisation...

 forest is located in Ben Shemen.

The Ben Shemen Youth Village

Ben Shemen Youth Village

Ben Shemen Youth Village is a youth village and agricultural boarding school in central Israel. Located near Ben Shemen and Ginaton, it falls under the jurisdiction of Judaism Hevel Modi'in Regional Council. In 2006, it had a population of 627.-History:...

, sometimes called the Ben Shemen Children's Village, was established in 1927 and is today a large agricultural boarding school

Boarding school

A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...

, situated adjacent to the moshav.

Notable residents, past and present

• Benjamin Elazari Volcani
  Benjamin Elazari Volcani
  Benjamin Elazari Volcani discovered life in the Dead Sea and pioneered biological silicon research at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.-Biography:...
  
  , Microbiologist and discovered life in the Dead Sea
  Dead Sea
  The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...
  
  and pioneered biological silicon research.