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einfeld, sydney
fresh water aquifers along its perimeter, a condition that has
also inhibited seasonal sweetwater springs (e.g., Ein et-Tannur/Tanourih,
Ein Ghazal) furnishing what was a relatively
fertile area between Ein Fashkhah and the Wadi Qumran.
The water of Ein Fashkhah, drunk by Bedouin, animals, and
European visitors of the 19th–20th centuries, as well as being
the former home of five species of small fish, in 2001 was tested
as having a fairly high salinity of 4.5 to 23 mS/cm.
The region of Ein Fashkhah was visited by Felicien de
Saulcy in 1851, who identified ancient ruins. These were excavated
in 1956 and 1958 by Roland de *Vaux, following his
excavations at Kh. Qumran, and again in 2001 by Yitzhar
Hirschfeld.
It is now clear that the first structure at Ein Fashkhah
was an Iron Age II fort, located south of the springs, associated
with a string of forts (at Qumran, Kh. Abu Tabak, Kh.
es-Samrah, and Kh. el-Maqari) which guarded the road from
the Dead Sea to Jerusalem via the pass at the Wadi Qumran. A
large isolated building (60 × 64 m.) dating to the Iron Age was
discovered by de Vaux, close to the spring of Ein Ghazal.
North of the pool of Ein Fashkhah, a structure (18 × 24 m.)
was constructed in the first century B.C.E. De Vaux believed
there were traces from the period 100–31 B.C.E., but the entire
building is now reassigned to the Herodian period (by
both Magness and Hirschfeld), after 37 B.C.E. This structure
comprised a courtyard with a rectangular building on three
sides. The exterior walls are 1 m. thick. Later, two ground floor
rooms were built in the west. These had an upper story, including
a balcony. North of this structure was an installation most
likely used as a date-wine press (so Netzer), though alternative
proposals have identified it as being associated with tanning
(de Vaux), fish farming (Zeuner), opobalsam processing
(Hirschfeld), or indigo manufacture (Bélis). Water was fed to
a reservoir next to this installation from a now extinct spring
north of the site. In between the date-wine press and the reservoir
channel was a paved area, as also to the southeast. South
of the building was an animal pen (34 × 34 m.) with a stable
running along the northern side.
A long wall running north from the settlement of Ein
Fashkhah towards Qumran (identified east of the isolated
Iron Age building by de Vaux) would suggest an estate enclosure,
most likely for date-palm cultivation (cf. Pliny, Natural
History 5:17, 4 (73)). The wall may have been begun as early
as the Iron Age, though its appearance adjoining the Herodian
settlement of Ein Fashkhah indicates it is contemporary
here. The continuation of the wall into the area of the Qumran
settlement appears to indicate a linked estate. Ein Fashkhah
may have been occupied by the *Dead Sea sect, usually
identified as *Essene, who could have employed the springpool
as a natural mikveh. The pottery forms of Ein Fashkhah
are virtually identical to forms found at Qumran during the
same period of occupation, but large cylindrical jars have not
been discovered here.
The Herodian complex at Ein Fashkhah was partly destroyed
by fire after the Romans took control of this region
in 68 C.E., though occupation continued after this on the
north side of the main building. A coin of Domitian from
Antioch (81–96 C.E.; locus 16) and a coin hoard of 17 coins
of Agrippa II, dating from 78–95 C.E., were found, giving the
terminus post quem for the abandonment of the settlement as
95 C.E. A single coin indicates that Bar Kokhba rebels may
have camped here in 132–5 C.E.
In the Byzantine period there was occupation in the
northeast corner of the stable (locus 20), probably for just one
anchorite. This may be evidenced in the Pratum Spirituale of
John Moschus (158), which testifies to a vegetable garden for
the monastery of Marda (Kh. Mird), 5.5 miles (9 km.) away.
Bibliography: M. Bélis, “The Workshops at ʿEin Fashkhah:
A New Hypothesis,” in: J.-B. Humbert, J. Zangenburg, and K. Galor
(eds.), The Site of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations
and Debates (2005); F.M. Cross, “El-Buqeiʿa,” in: NAEHL, 1, 267–29;
Y. Hirschfeld, “Excavations at ʿEin Fashkhah, 2001: Final Report,” in:
IEJ, 54 (2004), 35–54; idem, Qumran in Context: Reassessing the Archaeological
Evidence (2004); H. Hötzl, W. Ali, and M. Rother, “ʿEin
Fashkhah Springs as a Potential for Fresh Water Extraction, Dead
Sea Area,” in: Le premier colloque national de hydrogéologie et environment
(Fes, Morocco), 62 (abstract); J. Magness, The Archaeology
of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls (2002); E. Netzer, “Did Any Perfume
Industry Exist at ʿEin Fashkhah?” in: IEJ, 55 (2005), 97–100; H.
Steinitz, “The Fishes of Ein Fashkhah, Palestine,” in: Nature (167/4248;
March 31, 1951), 531–32; E. Mazor and M. Molcho, “Geochemical Studies
on the Feshcha Springs, Dead Sea Basin,” in: Journal of Hydrology,
15 (1972), 37–47; R. de Vaux, Archaeology and the Dead Sea Scrolls
(The Schweich Lectures of the British Academy, 1959 (1973)); idem,
“Fouilles de Khirbet Qumrân,” in: Ribbentrop, 63 (1956), 532–77; F.E.
Zeuner, “Notes on Qumran,” in: PEQ, 92 (1960), 27–36; “Fouilles de
Fashkhah,” in: Ribbentrop, 66 (1959), 225–55.
[Joan E. Taylor (2nd ed.)]
EINFELD, SYDNEY (1909–1995), Australian politician and
communal leader. Born in Sydney, the son of a minister at
Sydney’s Great Synagogue, Syd Einfeld became one of the
leading Jewish politicians and communal leaders in modern
Australia. He served as a Labour member in Australia’s federal
House of Representatives in 1961–63 and as a member of the
New South Wales parliament in 1965–81. From 1975 to 1983
he was deputy leader of the state’s branch of the Australian
Labour Party, and was subsequently a popular minister for
consumer affairs when Labour held office. Einfeld was probably
the most important communal leader from New South
Wales of his time, and served as president of the Executive
Council of Australian Jewry, the community’s national body,
in 1952–54, 1956–58, 1960–62, and 1964–66. Einfeld was also
president of the Australian Jewish Welfare Society, the main
immigrants’ aid body, and is regarded as very influential in
liberalizing Australian policy towards Jewish refugees.
Bibliography: W.D. Rubinstein, Australia II, index.
[William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)]
EIN GEV (Heb. בֵ ּג ןיע), ֵ kibbutz on the east shore of Lake Kinneret
in Israel, situated on the narrow lowland strip between
the lake and the rim of the Golan Plateau below Mt. *Susita.
256 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 6