NAVEH

NAVEH (Heb. נָוֶה), city in Bashan, possibly mentioned in the lists of cities conquered by Thutmosis III (no. 75) and Ramses II (no. 13). zeno visited it during his travels in 259 B.C.E. In talmudic times, it was a well-known Jewish center with its own territory (Tosef., Shev. 4:8); the nesi'im had extensive possessions there. Naveh and the neighboring city of Ḥalamish were at odds (Lam. R. 1:17, no. 52). Eusebius calls it a Jewish town (Onom. 136:3). The Jewish community persisted until the time of the Crusades, and the city was the home town of many scholars. In Byzantine times it was part of Provincia Arabia and had a bishop. It is the present-day Arab village of Nawā, in which the legendary tomb of shem and the tomb of Joseph b. Saadiah (1062) are located. Jewish remains include many fragments of a synagogue built by Bar Yudan and Levi. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Schumacher, Across the Jordan (1866), 167ff.; Dalman, in: PJB, 8 (1913), 59–60; Mayer and Reifemberg, in: BJPES, 4 (1936), 1ff.; Braslavski, ibid., 8ff.; Klein, ibid., 76ff.; Amiran, in: IEJ, 6 (1956), 243–4; Avi-Yonah, Geog., 155; Press Ereẓ, 3 (19522), 624. (Michael Avi-Yonah)