Yehoshua Stampfer

Who was Yehoshua Stampfer?

Yehoshua Stampfer was one of the founders of the city of Petah Tikva in Israel, and a member of its original municipal council. Petah Tikva was founded in 1878 and is nicknamed "Mother of Settlements" since it was the first renewed modern Jewish agricultural settlement in Palestine at the time.

Stampfer was born in Szombathely, Hungary to a religious family. Seeing the results of the national success of the Hungarians in 1867, he longed for a similar independence for his people in Eretz Yisrael. When he was 17, he started the Aliyah to the Land of Israel by walking all the way to Jerusalem.

He later joined forces with several other pioneers and established his dream to revive the land by building new Jewish neighbourhoods outside the Old City of Jerusalem. Initially he purchased 3.2 km² for Petah Tikva, which began with a few tents. In 1882 there were already 66 people living in the Petah Tikva.