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Israel
Sites in the Holy Land Series: Capernaum
1985 BU Silver Half Shekel 23mm (7.20 grams) 0.850 Silver (0.1968 oz. ASW)
Reference: KM# 152 | Engraver: Dan Gelbart, Assaf Berg
שקל SHEQEL 1/2 ISRAEL ישראל اسرائيل 1985 התשמ”ו , The emblem of the State of Israel.
CAPERNAUM כפר-נחום , Remnants of the Capernaum synagogue with its symbolic Jewish decorations and Lake Tiberias in the background.
Coin Notes:
One of the holy sites which is of major significance for Jews and Christians is Kefar Nahum or Capernaum. The Kefar Nahum Synagogue was built in the 2nd century. It was destroyed by the Romans less than 100 years later, only to be rebuilt in all of its ornamental Jewish splendor. For Christians, the Capernaum synagogue symbolizes the cradle of their faith. On this spot, among the simple fishermen along the shores of Lake Tiberias, Jesus chose to live and teach. This was the starting point of Jesus’ travels. In this Synagogue, Jesus the Jew would deliver many sermons. The remnants of the Kefar Nahum synagogue, including such items as the Menorah, Shofar, Star of David and the Seven Species, were discovered in the Synagogue, at the beginning of the 20th century. At the Capernaum excavations, coins, remnants of pottery and glass, writings in Greek and Aramaic and a human skeleton, were dug out. Jewish symbols, hewn in stone, have been well preserved and some of them have been included in this impressive Commemorative Coin.
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 Capernaum (Hebrew: כְּפַר נַחוּם, romanized: Kfar Naḥum, lit. ‘Nahum’s village’; Arabic: كفر ناحوم, romanized: Kafr Nāḥūm) was a fishing village established during the time of the Hasmoneans, located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. It had a population of about 1500. Archaeological excavations have revealed two ancient synagogues built one over the other. A house turned into a church by the Byzantines is believed to have been the home of Saint Peter.
Capernaum’s 4th-century synagogue (detail with columns and benches)
The village was inhabited continuously from the second century BC to the 11th century AD, when it was abandoned sometime before the First Crusade. This includes the re-establishment of the village during the Early Islamic period soon after the 749 earthquake. The village subsequently became known as al-Samakiyya; it was depopulated of its Palestinian population during the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine on May 4, 1948, under Operation Matateh.
 Israel (/ˈɪzriəl, ˈɪzreɪəl/; Hebrew: יִשְׂרָאֵל; Arabic: إِسْرَائِيل), officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. It has land borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the northeast, Jordan on the east, the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to the east and west, respectively, and Egypt to the southwest. The country contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area. Israel’s economic and technological center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, although the state’s sovereignty over Jerusalem has only partial recognition.
Israel has evidence of the earliest migration of hominids out of Africa. Canaanite tribes are archaeologically attested since the Middle Bronze Age, while the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah emerged during the Iron Age. The Neo-Assyrian Empire destroyed Israel around 720 BCE. Judah was later conquered by the Babylonian, Persian and Hellenistic empires and had existed as Jewish autonomous provinces. The successful Maccabean Revolt led to an independent Hasmonean kingdom by 110 BCE, which in 63 BCE however became a client state of the Roman Republic that subsequently installed the Herodian dynasty in 37 BCE, and in 6 CE created the Roman province of Judea. Judea lasted as a Roman province until the failed Jewish revolts resulted in widespread destruction, expulsion of Jewish population and the renaming of the region from Iudaea to Syria Palaestina. Jewish presence in the region has persisted to a certain extent over the centuries. In the 7th century the Levant was taken from the Byzantine Empire by the Arabs and remained in Muslim control until the First Crusade of 1099, followed by the Ayyubid conquest of 1187. The Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt extended its control over the Levant in the 13th century until its defeat by the Ottoman Empire in 1517. During the 19th century, national awakening among Jews led to the establishment of the Zionist movement in the diaspora followed by waves of immigration to Ottoman and later British Palestine.
 In 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency, and rejected by Arab leaders. The following year, the Jewish Agency declared the independence of the State of Israel, and the subsequent 1948 Arab-Israeli War saw Israel’s establishment over most of the former Mandate territory, while the West Bank and Gaza were held by neighboring Arab states. Israel has since fought several wars with Arab countries, and it has since 1967 occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and the Gaza Strip (still considered occupied after 2005 disengagement, although some legal experts dispute this claim). It extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories is the world’s longest military occupation in modern times.[fn 4][49] Efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have not resulted in a final peace agreement. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have been signed.
In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish and democratic state. Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature. Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 32nd-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2017. The country benefits from a highly skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentages of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. Israel has the highest standard of living in the Middle East, and has one of the highest life expectancies in the world.
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