Remains of the Jewish village called Umm el-‘Umdan are located in the southwestern part of Modi‘in, next to Ha-Hashmona'im Boulevard, leading to the southern entrance of the city. The site was exposed in 2000–2001 during a salvage excavation conducted in the wake of plans to build a road. Upon discovery of the remains of the rural settlement and the synagogue in its midst, it was decided to divert the course of the road to the south in order to display the ancient remains to the public.

 

The ancient settlement dates to the pre–Hasmonean Hellenistic period, from the second century BCE, and it existed continuously until the time of the Bar Kokhba rebellion in the second century CE. During the Byzantine period the center of the settlement shifted north and the area where the Jewish village was located was covered with dirt and converted to farmland.

Clusters of dwellings surrounded by alleys (insulae), a public compound that included a synagogue entered by way of a broad courtyard, and a ritual bath (miqwe) were among the antiquities uncovered in the area of the ancient settlement. Ancient agricultural installations such as wine presses, a columbarium, farming terraces and dams were identified outside the village. A road several hundred meters long passed through the settlement and continued beyond it to the east and west. The excavators, Alexander Onn and Shlomit Wexler-Bdolah, proposed identifying the place with ancient Modiʽin.

 

In 2010, we began planning the conservation and development of the site with the support of the Milestones Program of the Heritage Division in the Prime Minister's Office.

We were presented us with a serious dilemma when it came to planning the conservation of the remains of the Jewish village. The site represents important processes in the historical development of the Jewish people, yet despite its great significance many of its remains are meager. The walls were preserved to a height of one or two courses, and they represent rural construction that is both simple and modest. While magnificent sites dating to the same period have been exposed elsewhere in the country, no monumental construction was found here, no impressive mosaics were discovered nor were there any frescoes. That being the case we were asked the question: How can the significance of the place be conveyed to the public when the physical artifacts are scant and embody plain and rudimentary construction?

 

Upon examining the cultural importance of the site we realized that the paucity of material is not a hindrance but rather an opportunity. An opportunity in a place that is not monumental – a place that represents a typical simple and modest settlement, whose values are in the social and religious content that developed in it and not in its magnificence. An opportunity to observe a time when important processes in formulating Jewish identity occurred: the Great Revolt, the destruction of the Temple, the failed Bar Kokhba rebellion, followed by the need to continue the existence of the Jewish people and the Jewish religion despite the many restrictions that nearly brought it down.