The story of Alexander

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Alexander Zaid.
One of the founders of the defense force Hashomer that was formed in 1909. Like most jews at that time, Alexander Zaid, bought land from either arabs or the british in the land, then known as Palestine. The arabs did not like this very much though and tried to destroy the settlements and make the jews leave. The British had a group of guards that people could rent to guard their house, but most of them were arabs. The jews did not feel safe having arabs guarding their homes because they often cooperated with the arabs that attacked settlements, therefore they formed Hashomer, which was a jewish defense organisation.

Once Alexander Zaid was standing guard, he was attacked by some arabs and killed. Now there is a statue of him on a horse looking out over the valley and guarding his home. Now the intersting part is that the land that he bought and owned was more than it looked like. Under the hills lay a huge jewish cemetery that randomly was discovered by digging and building. There are huge caves with catacombs. Most of the remains date from the 2nd to 4th century CE.
Today the family of Alexander Zaid are probably one of the richest once in Israel after selling the entire land.

I took a trip to this glorious place and these are the pictures.

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Photos

Beit Shearim
It is possible to go into this grave. On the inside there is a whole cave filled with catacombs.

Beit Shearim
a jewish mennorah