Yavne (
Hebrew ????????;
Arabic ?????? or ????,
Yibnah;
Latin Iamnia; traditional English spelling
Jabneh or
Jamnia) is a city in the
Center District of
Israel. According to the
Israel Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), at the end of 2007 the city had a total population of 32,200.
[1]The Hebrew Bible refers to Yavne as Yavne'el (Joshua 1511) (Douay-Rheims Jebneel), a border city between the tribal allotments of Dan and Judah. Later, its walls were breached by King Uzziah in his battle against the Philistines (2Chronicles 266).
The Romans called the city Iamnia. It was bequeathed by King Herod upon his death to his sister Salome. Upon her death it passed to Caesar Augustus who managed it as a private imperial estate, a status it was maintain for at least a century. After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Rabban Yochanan Ben Zakkai moved the Sanhedrin to Yavne. Shortly thereafter, the Council of Yavne met there, whence Rabbinical Judaism emerged. The Sanhedrin left Yavne for Usha in 80 CE, only to return in 116 CE, before leaving Yavne for good.
The Crusaders called the city Ibelin and built a castle there in 1141. Its namesake noble family, Ibelin, was important in the Kingdom of Jerusalem and later in the Kingdom of Cyprus. Ibelin itself was captured by Saladin in 1187.
